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UNITED STATES OF AMEBIC A. 



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BEAUTIES OF ^FLETCHER: 



BEING 



EXTRACTS FROM HIS 



CHECKS TO ANTINOMIANISM, 

IN A SERIES OF LETTERS* TO 



REV. MR. SHIRLEY AND MR. .HILL. 



BY REV. T. SPICER, A.M. 



NEW-YORK : 
PUBLISHED BY T. MASON & G. LANE, 
For the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the Conference Office, 
200 Mulberry-street. • ■ 

J. Collord, Printer. 
1840. 



m *b 



"Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by 
TjE&laaeaw HMt G. Lane, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the Southern District of New-York." 



4t% A % 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The Vindication of Mr. Wesley's last Minutes, or, 
"Checks to Antinomianism," by the celebrated Mr. 
Fletcher, of Madely, Eng., has been very justly regarded 
by the Methodist societies, both in Europe and America, 
as one of the most excellent works of the kind that has 
ever been published in the English language. 

This work was first published in London, A.D. 1788, 
in six duodecimo volumes, and it has passed through 
four editions in America. It has had a very extensive 
circulation in this country, and has been read with 
great pleasure and profit. Many have thereby been 
led from the mazes of a speculative and vain philo- 
sophy, and the intricacies of Calvinian subtleties, to a 
clear and satisfactory view of the plan of salvation as 
exhibited in the Holy Scriptures. And not a few, who, 
by means of Calvinism, had renounced the Bible and 
become skeptical, have, by reading these "Checks," 
been brought to see a beauty and harmony in the 
doctrines contained in this sacred volume, and have 
acknowledged its truth. It is a fact too well known to 
be denied, that many who have known no other way 
to understand the Scriptures than as Calvinism teaches, 



4 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



have seen in Calvinian predestination, election, and 
reprobation, so many things repugnant to reason and 
common sense, that they have chosen, rather than be- 
lieve such doctrines, to renounce the book which they 
had been taught to believe contained them. Not a few 
of these have been induced to read these Checks, which 
exhibit a different view of the divine government, and 
of the 'plan of salvation, from that which is exhibited 
in Calvinism, and have thereby been led to embrace 
Christianity again, as a system the most lovely and 
interesting of all the exhibitions of the divine Being. 

" What is truth ?" This is a very interesting ques- 
tion : there are, however, many persons in the world 
like Pilate, who make this important inquiry, but have 
not sufficient patience to wait for an answer. If a 
book be large, or if a work consist of several volumes, 
they cannot endure the thought of perusing the whole 
in order to ascertain what is truth. This is the case 
of many who are not accustomed to close thinking or 
extensive reading. These must be accommodated with 
a treatise that is brief and directly to the point, or their 
attention is not gamed, nor can we win their assent to 
truth. 

In the works of Mr. Fletcher there are many matters 
contained which may be considered rather of a local 
character than of general interest. At the time when 
they were written they were, doubtless, considered very 
interesting to all concerned, but at this distance of time 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



5 



and place, few of his readers would feel much interest 
in them. A kind of abridgment, which shall contain 
a sketch or outline of these matters, and also present an 
epitome of the work, will interest, and greatly profit, a 
very numerous class of readers. 

Again, many readers there are who feel a repugnance 
to every thing in the form of controversy, and so great 
is their aversion that they cannot be persuaded to read 
any work like this of Mr. Fletcher's ; they would, at 
least, affect to regard it as a quarrel among ministers 
about religion. In order that such may embrace the 
truth, it must be presented in a form which to them 
may seem less exceptionable than it usually is in 
works on controversy. 

The above considerations have induced the compiler 
of these extracts to undertake the present work. In his 
estimation, no man has more closely studied the Holy 
Scriptures in connection with their bearing on these 
points of doctrine than Mr. Fletcher. 

In making these extracts, I have selected such arti- 
cles as are deemed most interesting to the greater part 
of inquirers after truth at the present day. In some 
instances I have gathered the writer's remarks on one 
subject from different volumes, and I have united them 
in one chapter. And in many cases I have made dis- 
tinct chapters under appropriate heads, when they did 
not so exist before. My principal object in the selection 
and in the arrangement which I have introduced, has 



0 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



been to present the reader a very distinct view of the 
most important parts of these controversial writings, 
consisting of essays and arguments, proofs and illus- 
trations of divine truth. Here the inquirer after truth 
will find objections answered, difficulties removed, and 
explanations of many difficult passages of Holy Scrip- 
ture. 

On the whole, I cannot but hope that the reader will 
receive great benefit from a careful perusal of the work 
which is here presented to him. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CONTENTS. 

Introduction, - Page 3 

An historical sketch of the circumstances which gave rise to, and 
were connected with this controversy, 9 

CHAPTER I. 
On the necessity of works. 
Section i. — Is it necessary that any thing be done by men in order 

to justification ? 25 

Section ii. — An objection answered, 29 

CHAPTER II. 
On the merit of good works. 
Section I. — The rewardableness of good works illustrated by a 

comparison, 31 

Section ii. — Calvinistic reasoning respecting reprobation an- 
swered, -----.-...-34 
Section hi. — Calvinistic reprobation inconsistent with the perfec- 
tions of God, -40 

An objection against God's wisdom answered, - - - - 44 

CHAPTER III. 

An answer to several Calvinistic dogmas respecting election, - 44 
CHAPTER IV. 

On the doctrine of a two-fold justification, 53 

CHAPTER V. 

Remarks on the state and character of Judas, - - 60 

CHAPTER VI. 

Farther remarks on the justification of infants, 69 

CHAPTER VII. 
The doctrine of a believer's justification by works reconciled with 
a sinner's justification by grace, 72 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Reconciling concessions respecting election and reprobation, - 76 

CHAPTER IX. 

The fictitious and the genuine creed, 83 

CHAPTER X. 

A Scriptural essay on the astonishing rewardableness of works 
according to the covenant of grace. 

Section i. — A variety of plain scriptures, which show that heaven 
itself is the gracious reward of the works of faith, and that be- 
lievers may lose that reward by bad works, ... - 122 

Section ii. — An answer to the most plausible objections of the 

Solifidians against this doctrine, ...... 135 

Section hi. — Some reflections upon the unreasonableness of those 
who scorn to work with an eye to the reward which God offers 
to excite us to obedience, 156 



8 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

CHAPTER XI. 

An essay on truth. — Introduction, Page 171 

Section i. — A plain definition of saving faith, how believing is the 

gift of God, and whether it is in our power to believe, - - 172 
Section ii. — Saving truth is the object of saving faith : what truth 
is, and what great things are spoken of it. Our salvation turns 
upon it, - -- -- -- -- -- 183 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Scripture scales. 
Section i. — Three pairs of gospel axioms, ----- 188 

Section ii. — The glory of faith, and the honour of works, - - 191 
Section hi. — What is God's work, and what is our own, - - 196 

CHAPTER XIII. 
A rational and Scriptural view of St. Paul's meaning in the ninth 

chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 207 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The absurdity of supposing that there can be any free wrath in a 

just and good God, - - - - 236 

CHAPTER XV. 

Mr. Toplady's Christian and philosophical necessity considered, - 240 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Absurd consequences attached to error. 
Section I. — The elect shall be saved, do what they will, and others 
will be damned, do what they can, ------ 246 

Section ii. — Mr. Toplady's inquiries answered, - - - 249 

<• ' CHAPTER XVII. 

A rational account of the origin of evil, ------ 253 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Difficulties removed. 
Section i. — Remarks on 1 Samuel ii, 25, 258 
Section ii. — Explanation of Acts iv, 27, 28, .... 259 

CHAPTER XIX. 
A caution against the tenet that Whatever is, is right, - - - 262 

CHAPTER XX. 

A middle way between Calvinian providence and chance, - - 268 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Christian perfection. — Advertisement, 275 

Section i. — The doctrine of Christian perfection stated, - - 276 

Section II. — Is Christian perfection a sinless perfection? - - 278 
Section hi. — Several plausible objections to Christian perfection 

answered, - - - - - - - - - - 281 

Section iv. — The absurdity of saying that all our perfection is in 

Christ, 284 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Objections taken from Holy Scripture answered. 

Section i.— Exposition of 1 Kings viii, 46, 289 

Section ii. — Exposition of Eccles. vii, 20, - - - - - 291 

Section hi. — Exposition of Gal. v, 17, ----- 292 

Section iv. — Exposition of Rom. vii, 14, 294 

Section v. — Exposition of 2 Cor. xii, 7, 297 

Section vi. — Exposition of 1 John i, 8, 300 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The mischievousness of the doctrine of Christian imperfection, - 302 



AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF 

THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH GAVE RISE TO, AND WERE 
CONNECTED WITH, THIS CONTROVERSY. 



In the latter part of the year 1739, several persons, 
who were deeply awakened to see their need of salva- 
tion, came to the Rev. John Wesley in London, de- 
siring" that he would spend some time with them in 
prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to 
come. That he might have more time for this great 
work, he appointed a day in which they might all come 
together, which from thenceforth they did every week. 
Such inquirers becoming quite numerous, he formed 
them into classes, and gave them such advice from 
time to time as he judged most needful for them. 
Similar classes or societies were soon formed in various 
parts of England, voluntarily putting themselves under 
the pastoral care of Mr. Wesley ; and from among them 
the Lord soon raised up individuals to assist Mr. Wesley 
in this great work. Several of these he licensed as 
preachers, and they became his regular helpers in pro- 
moting this blessed revival of pure religion throughout 
Great Britain. These preachers used to meet Mr. Wes- 
ley in conference once a year, and sometimes oftener, 
to confer on the most suitable means to promote this 
great work which God had commenced ; and to receive 
from Mr. Wesley their appointments to their respective 
fields of labour. 

1* 



10 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



In the year 1770 their conference was held in the 
city of London ; and from the Minutes of their con- 
versation the following extracts were published : — 

" Take heed to your doctrine." 

" We said in 1744, ' We have leaned too much to- 
ward Calvinism.' Wherein? 

" 1. With regard to maris faithfulness. Our Lord 
himself taught to use the expression, and we ought 
never to be ashamed of it. We ought steadily to as- 
sert on his authority, that if a man is not faithful in 
the unrighteous mammon, God will not give him 
the true riches. 

" 2. With regard to working for life, this also our 
Lord has expressly commanded us. Labour, kpya^ode, 
literally, work, for the meat that endureth unto ever- 
lasting life. And, in fact, every believer, till he comes 
to glory, works for as well as from life. 

" 3. We have received it as a maxim, that ' a man 
is to do nothing in order to justification — nothing can 
be more false. Whoever desires to find favour with 
God should cease from evil, and learn to do well. 
Whoever repents, should do works meet for repent- 
ance. And if this is not in order to find favour, what 
does he do them for? 

" Review the whole affair. 

" 1. Who of us is now accepted of God? He that 
now believes in Chvist with a loving, obedient heart. 

" 2. But who among those who never heard of 
Christ? He that feareth God and worketh righteous- 
ness according to the light he has. 

" 3. Is this the same with, c He that is sincere ?' 
Nearly, if not quite. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER- 



1! 



" 4. Is not this salvation by works ? Not by the 
merit of works, but by works as a condition. 

" 5. What, then, have we been disputing about for 
these thirty years ? I am afraid, about words. 

" 6. As to merit itself, of which we have been so 
dreadfully afraid : We are rewarded according to our 
works, yea, because of our icorks. How does this 
differ from, for the sake of our works? And how 
differs this from secundum merita operum ? — As our 
works deserve ? Can you split this hair ? I doubt, I 
cannot. 

" 7. The grand objections to one of the preceding 
propositions are drawn from matter of fact. God does, 
in fact, justify those who, by their own confession, nei- 
ther feared God nor wrought righteousness. Is this an 
exception to the general rule ? It is a doubt, God makes 
any exception at all. But how are we sure that the 
person in question never did fear God and with right- 
eousness? His own saying so is no proof: for we know 
how all that are convinced of sin undervalue them- 
selves in every thing. 

" 8. Does not talking of a justified or sanctified state 
tend to mislead men ? Almost naturally leading them 
to trust in what was done in one moment ? Whereas 
we are every hour and every moment pleasing or dis- 
pleasing to God, according to our works, — according 
to the whole of our inward tempers and our outward 
behaviour." 

The publication of the above extracts from the Min- 
utes gave great offence to the enemies of Mr. Wesley, 
and also to several clergymen. Among these was the 
Honourable and Reverend Walter Shirley. This gen- 
tleman addressed a printed circular to several persons, 



12 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



both clergy and laity, inviting them to meet at Bristol 
at the time of Mr. Wesley's next conference, which was 
to be held at that place, and to go in a body to said 
conference and i?isist on a formal recantation of the 
said Minutes ; and in case of a refusal, that they sigu 
and publish their protest agaiust them. This circular 
denounced these Minutes as injurious to the very fun- 
damental principles of Christianity, and as dreadful 
heresy. 

Mr. Shirley desired those gentlemen whose conve- 
nience it might not suit to be present, to transmit their 
sentiments on the subject to such person as they should 
think proper to produce them. One of these circulars 
was sent to Rev. Mr. Fletcher, vicar of Madely, one of 
the most holy and devoted men in the nation. By 
means of this circular his attention was turned to these 
obnoxious Minutes ; and on carefully comparing the 
doctrines which they contained with the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and the Articles and Homilies of the Church of 
England, he could not discover that " dreadful heresy" 
mentioned by Mr. Shirley ; nor could he perceive any 
thing in them injurious to the " fundamental prin- 
ciples" of Christianity. Instead, therefore, of uniting 
with Mr. Shirley and " other Christian friends, clergy 
and laity, as well of the dissenters as of the established 
Church," as had been proposed, he addressed a series 
of letters to Mr. Shirley, to be laid before the " principal 
persons, both clergy and laity," whom he had invited 
from all parts of England and Wales. 

In these letters Mr. Fletcher undertakes three things, 
viz. — 

I. To give a general view of the doctrines which 
Mr. Wesley believed and preached : 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



13 



II. An account of the commendable design of the 
Minutes: and, 

III. A vindication of the propositions which they 
contain. 

In giving a general view of Mr. Wesley's doctrines, 
he remarks, that he had frequently heard Mr. Wesley 
preach in his chapels, and sometimes in his own church ; 
that he had familiarly conversed with him, often cor- 
responded with him, and had perused his numerous 
works in verse and prose, and knew that he had, for 
these sixteen years past, steadily maintained the fall of 
man in Adam, and his utter inability to recover him- 
self,- that the deepest expressions that ever struck his 
ears on the melancholy subject of natural depravity and 
helplessness, are those which dropped from Mr. Wesley ; 
and that Mr. Wesley was in the habit of pointing out 
Christ as the only way of salvation, and faith as the 
only way of receiving him, and the benefits of his 
righteousness and meritorious death. 

Mr. Fletcher remarks, that the next fundamental 
doctrine of Christianity is that of holiness of heart and 
life ; and insists that no one could accuse Mr. Wesley 
of leaning to the Antinomian delusion, which makes 
void the law through a speculative and barren faith. 
On this subject he shows wherein Mr. Wesley agrees 
with the Holy Scriptures. He shows also that Mr. Wes- 
ley holds the doctrine of general redemption in a Scrip- 
tural manner: and that in these views he perfectly 
agrees with the doctrine of the established Church, 
which declares that Christ redeemed all mankind, and 
that he made upon the cross a full, perfect, and suffi- 
cient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins 
of the whole world. And that Mr. Wesley, in his 



14 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



preaching, never loses sight of these two gospel axioms, 
viz., that all our salvation is of God in Christ, and 
therefore of grace, — all opportunities, invitations, in- 
clinations, and power to believe, being bestowed upon 
us by mere grace. And that all our damnation is of 
ourselves, by our obstinate unbelief, and our avoidable 
unfaithfulness, or incorrigible impenitence. 

After having distinctly stated the doctrines to which 
Mr. Wesley had subscribed as a minister of the Church 
of England, and which he was in the constant habit 
of promulgating both in public and private, Mr. 
Fletcher proceeds to show the commendable design of 
the Minutes, and to vindicate the propositions which 
they contain. 

Respecting the Minutes, Mr. Fletcher remarks, that 
such was the force of prejudice and attachments to par- 
ticular modes of expression, that at first they appeared 
to him very unguarded, if not altogether erroneous ; but 
when the din of severe epithets bestowed upon them by 
some of his warm friends was out of his ears — when 
he had prayed to the Father of lights for meekness of 
wisdom, and had given place to calm reflection — he 
saw them in quite a different light. When he consi- 
dered the circumstances in which Mr. Wesley and the 
preachers in connection with him were placed, he could 
not help seeing that it was necessary to guard them 
and their hearers against Antinomian principles and 
practices, which spread like wildfire in some of his so- 
cieties. There were many who spoke in the most glo- 
rious manner of Christ and their interest in his com- 
plete salvation, and at the same time were living in the 
grossest immoralities, or indulging the most unchristian 
tempers. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



15 



Under these circumstances Mr. Wesley cries out, 
" Take heed to your doctrine." As if he had said, 
" Avoid all extremes : while, on the one hand, you keep 
clear from Pharisaic delusion that slights Christ, see 
that, on the other hand, you do not run into the And- 
nomian error, which, under pretence of exalting Christ, 
speaks contemptibly of obedience, and makes void the 
law' through a faith which does not 'work by love.'" 

Mr. Fletcher clearly shows that it was Mr. Wesley's 
design, in these Minutes, to guard his preachers, and 
the numerous societies under his care, against "lean- 
ing too much to Calvinism" on the one hand, and too 
much to Pharisaism on the other : and for this purpose 
advises them to " review the whole affair." In doing 
this he establishes four things, viz. : that those only 
who are under the gospel dispensation are accepted of 
God, who now believe in Christ with a loving, obedient 
heart — that among those who never heard of Christ, 
they that fear God and work righteousness according 
to the light they have are also accepted and saved— 
that this salvation is not by the merit of works, but by 
works only as a condition — and that in these points of 
doctrine Mr. Wesley is perfectly consistent with him- 
self. 

The Yindication of these Minutes consisted of Jive 
letters, addressed, as we have said, to the Hon. and 
Rev. Mr. Shirley. Whether they exerted any influence 
on Mr. Shirley and his friends in relation to their con- 
duct at the meeting of Mr. Wesley's next conference, 
we cannot say ; but it is certainly due to Mr. Shirley to 
say, that on that occasion his conduct was much like 
a minister of the Prince of peace. At the conference 
there were such explanations made as to prevent any 



16 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



" formal protest," or insisting on a " formal recantation" 
of the Minutes. 

Mr. Fletcher was prevailed on to furnish a copy of 
these letters for publication. To their publication Mr. 
Shirley was quite opposed : and by some of his friends 
it was represented as an act of injustice, inasmuch as 
Mr. Shirley's subsequent conduct was so highly credit- 
able to him in the matter above alluded to. Mr. 
Fletcher addressed a letter to Mr. Shirley, in which he 
acknowledged his pleasure at the results of the confer- 
ence, and expressed his willingness that the publication 
of his letters should be suppressed ; but remarked that, 
whether his letters were suppressed or not, he thought 
the doctrines contained in the Minutes must be vindi- 
cated — that Mr. Wesley owed it to the Church, to all 
real Protestants, to all his societies, and to his own 
aspersed character. Indeed, such was the modesty of 
Mr. Fletcher, and such his love of peace, that he wrote 
to the gentleman concerned in the publication of his 
letters, that if he would stop it, he would take the whole 
expense of the publication on himself, though it should 
oblige him to sell his last shirt to defray it. But Mr. 
Fletcher's friends, and the friends of those doctrines 
they so ably vindicated, prized these letters too highly 
to allow them to be suppressed. They were well aware 
that these letters would be eminently useful in stemming 
the tide of error, and in establishing the truth. 

In reply to these letters Mr. Shirley published a 
" Narrative." This gave occasion to Mr. Fletcher once 
more to take up his pen. He published a " Second 
Check to Antinomianism," in three letters, addressed to 
the honourable and reverend author of the u Narrative." 
He makes no complaint of any severity used in the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



17 



"Narrative," but acknowledges that, considering the 
sharpness of his fifth letter, the " Narrative" was kinder 
than he had reason to expect. But he complained that 
the author had wronged Mr. Wesley and the fifty-three 
preachers united with him in conference, by insinu- 
ating, if not directly asserting, that they had given up 
the doctrine of justification by works in the day of 
judgment. Mr. Fletcher insists on it, that so many 
judicious and good men could never so betray the cause 
of practical religion as tamely to renounce a truth of so 
great importance. After showing distinctly what is 
meant by those who hold to justification by works in 
the day of judgment, viz., by works as an evidence, he 
proceeds to maintain this doctrine by a great variety of 
passages found in the sayings of our Lord and other 
inspired teachers. His arguments are classed under 
five distinct heads ; and he notices and answers no less 
than ten objections which are usually raised against 
this doctrine. 

It appears that Mr. Shirley had, some time before, 
published a volume of sermons, from which Mr. Fletcher 
had made large quotations in support of the doc- 
trines contained in the Minutes. Mr. Shirley, in order 
to get rid of the arguments drawn from this source, 
had, in the " Narrative," made a public recantation of 
the sermons. In Mr. Fletcher's second letter of this 
new series, he expostulates with him for renouncing so 
many truths as were contained in those sermons. He 
compares Mr. Shirley with the Dutch, in their last ef- 
forts to balance the victory and secure the field. When 
they were pressed by the French, rather than yield, 
they break their dikes , let in the sea upon themselves, 
and lay all their fine gardens and rich pastures under 



If 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



water. Mr. Fletcher expresses great regret that Mr, 
Shirley had not been as prudent as they, who,, before 
laying their country waste, saved all their valuable goods 
which they could. He also notices a number of mis- 
statements made in the ,,; Narrative" by this honourable 
and reverend gentleman in reference to the " Vindica- 
tion." He closes this letter by assuring Mr. Shirley of 
his dislike to controversy. "I no more like it.'" says he, 
" than I do applying a caustic on the back of my friends ; 
it is disagreeable to me, and painful to them ; neverthe- 
less it must be done when their health and mine is at 
stake." 

To this Second Check Mr. Shirley made no reply; 
but Richard Hill, Esq., seconded the opposition which 
Mr. Shirley had raised against Mr. Wesley's Minutes 
This gentleman appears to have possessed talents equal 
to Mr. Shirley, but he did not possess as amiable a dis- 
position. He published five letters, addressed to Mr. 
Fletcher, entitled, " Pietas Oxiensis, or, Oxford 
Piety P To these Mr. Fletcher replied in a letter ad- 
dressed to the honourable author. As these letters 
were written from a concern for 11 mourning back- 
sliders" so the answer originated from a fear lest Dr. 
Crisp's balm should be applied to such instead of the 
balm of Gilead. 

Mr. Hill does Mr. Wesley the justice to acknowledge 
that a man's faithfulness" is an expression which may 
be used in a sober gospel sense; and Mr. Fletcher 
shows that this is the sense in which Mr. Wesley and 
all sober men wish to use it. Mr. Hill not only attacks 
Mr. Wesley's Minutes, but also the Vindication : it 
therefore became necessary for Mr. Fletcher to defend 
the Yindication. To the numerous objections brought 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



19 



by Mr. Hill against the doctrines here vindicated, and 
the many arguments he had introduced in favour of 
the peculiar dogmas of Calvinism, Mr. Fletcher answers 
in a very masterly manner. He follows Mr. Hill 
through all his refined subtleties of reasoning and sar- 
castic sneers with which his letters abound, in a manner 
which does great credit to his head and his heart. 

In reply to this letter of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Hill pub- 
lished six letters addressed to Mr. Fletcher. These let- 
ters gave occasion to Mr. Fletcher's Third Check to 
Antinomianism. He compares these letters to a storm 
of hail pouring down from the lowering sky, ushered 
by some harmless flashes of lightning, and accompa- 
nied by the rumbling of distant thunder. 

About the same time Mr. Rowland Hill, fellow of 
Clare-Hall, Cambridge, came to the aid of his honour- 
able brother. He published a " Review of Mr. Fletcher's 
Vindication," in what he called " Friendly Remarks." 
To these gentlemen Mr. Fletcher addressed thirteen 
letters, entitled Logica Genevensis, i. e., Geneva 
Logic, or Fourth Check to Antinomianism. 

To this Fourth Check, Mr. Richard Hill, Esq., replied 
in a work entitled " The Finishing Stroke." In 
this he attempts to screen his mistakes, by presenting a 
wrong view of the controversy, and endeavours to show 
that his scheme diners from Antinomianism. About 
the same time, Rev. Mr. Berriage published a work 
designed to attack sincere obedience, and justification 
by works and not by faith only. These publications 
gave rise to the Fifth Check to Antinomianism, a 
work equal in character to either of the preceding which 
had dropped from the pen of Mr. Fletcher. 

Although Mr. Hill had given the " finishing stroke," 



30 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



as he supposed, to the doctrines of Arminianism and 
its vindicator, he found his antagonist yet in the field, 
having so skilfully warded off the "stroke," that the 
doctrines of Arminianism were gaining ground in pub- 
lic opinion. He therefore thought proper to take up his 
pen once more, and addressed three letters to Mr. Fletch- 
er, to which was appended a creed for Arminians and 
Perfectionists, which he introduces in these words : " The 
following confession of faith, however shocking, not to 
say blasphemous, it may appear to the humble Chris- 
tian, must inevitably be adopted by every Arminian 
and Perfectionist whatsoever." This fictitious creed, 
consisting of ten articles, received an answer from Mr. 
Fletcher, in which he showed that neither of these ar- 
ticles need to be believed by Mr. Wesley, Mr. Sellon, or 
himself, whose initials the writer had subjoined, nor by 
any others who believed in the doctrines of the Min- 
utes, or their Vindication. To this fictitious creed he 
opposes a genuine creed for those who believed that 
Christ tasted death for every man. And this creed he 
supports by the Holy Scripture. 

It seemed to be the design of Mr. Fletcher's oppo- 
nents to fasten consequences on the doctrines contained 
in the Vindication which are calculated to undermine 
the doctrines of the Bible. They insist that Arminian- 
ism leads to Pharisaism. To this charge, on which 
they so constantly insisted, Mr. Fletcher published a 
work entitled, "An Equal Check to Pharisaism and 
Antinomianism." This consisted of an historical essay 
on the danger of parting faith and works, — a Scrip- 
tural essay on the astonishing rewardableness of works 
according to the covenant of grace, — a rational vindi- 
cation of the doctrine of salvation by faith, — and a 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



21 



dedicatory epistle to the right honourable, the Countess 
of Huntingdon. 

After the publication of the Equal Check, Mr. Hill 
found it necessary to give a " Second Finishing Stroke," 
to which he appends " reasons for declining any farther 
controversy respecting. Mr. Wesley's principles." He 
quits the field like a brave Parthian. He shoots his 
own arrows as he retires, and borrows those of two gen- 
tlemen whom he calls, f a very eminent minister of the 
Church of England," and " a lay gentleman of great 
learning and abilities." In this work he does little else 
than repeat the same things he had said in his former 
work. He treats Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Olivers with 
great contempt. He notifies Mr. Fletcher, that he 
would not in future look into any of his books if he 
should write a thousand. And as to Mr. Thomas 
Olivers, who certainly was a writer of no mean talents, 
" I shall not," says he, " take the least notice of him, 
or read a line of his composition, any more than if I 
were travelling on the road, I should stop to lash, or 
even order my footman to lash, every impertinent little 
quadruped in a village that should come out and bark 
at me." This specimen will serve to show the spirit 
of some of Mr. Fletcher's opponents. 

In reply to this Second Finishing Stroke, and the let- 
ters accompanying it, Mr. Fletcher wrote his Zelotes 
and Honestus reconciled, or the second part to an 
Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism, being 
the first part of the Scripture Scales. This is a most 
admirable work, well calculated to throw light on the 
plan of salvation, and to assist in understanding many 
dark and difficult passages of Holy Scripture. His 
scales are well calculated to weigh the gold of gospel 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



truth. In them he balances a multitude of opposite 
scriptures, and thereby unites free grace in God, 
and free will in man. 

After this reply, Mr. Hill was as good as his word, for 
it appears that he published nothing more on the sub- 
ject. But he had scarcely quit the field of controversy, 
when another warrior, clad in armour, thought proper 
to make his appearance in defence of the peculiarities 
of Calvinism. This was Rev. Mr. Toplady. He pub- 
lished his " Scheme of Christian Philosophical Neces- 
sity, asserted in Opposition to Mr. Wesley's Tracts on 
that Subject," and his " Vindication of the Decrees." 
The spirit with which this reverend gentlemen wrote 
did not reflect much honour on him, either as a Chris- 
tian or a gentleman. 

To this work Mr. Fletcher wrote a reply, in which 
he shows that Mr. Toplady's scheme represents God 
as the cause of all sin and damnation. Against this 
scheme he brings forward fourteen arguments ; and 
in a very clear manner he answers the capital objections 
of the necessitarians to the doctrine of liberty. His 
answer to Mr. Toplady's " Yindicatian of the Decrees" 
will richly repay the reader, if he be an inquirer after 
truth. He cannot fail to be edified. 

This reply to the principal arguments by which the 
Calvinists and fatalists support the doctrine of " abso- 
lute necessity" silenced these reverend and honourable 
gentleman. It was a " finishing stroke" to them. Mr. 
Fletcher, however, added to his numerous publications, 
the « Last Check to Antinomianism." This is " A po- 
lemical Essay on the twin Doctrines of Christian Im- 
perfection and a death Purgatory." In this essay he 
vindicates the doctrine of Christian perfection, or evan- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



£3 



gelical holiness. In his preface he says, " When a late 
fellow of Clare-Hall, Cambridge, attacked the doctrine 
of sincere obedience, which I defend in the Checks ', 
he said with great truth, 1 Sincere obedience, as a con- 
dition, will lead you unavoidably up to perfect obe- 
dience? What he urged as an argument against our 
views of the gospel, is one of the reasons by which we 
defend them, and perhaps the strongest of all ; for our 
doctrine leads as naturally to holiness and perfect obe- 
dience, as that of our opponents does to sin and imper- 
fection." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER I. 
ON THE NECESSITY OF WORKS. 
section r. 

IS IT NECESSARY THAT ANY THING BE DONE BY MEN IN 
ORDER TO JUSTIFICATION ? 

Mr. Wesley said, in the Minutes alluded to, " We 
have received it as a maxim, that a man is to do no- 
thing 1 in order to justification.' Nothing can be more 
false. Whoever desires to find favour with God, should 
cease from evil and learn to do well. Whoever re- 
pents, should do works meet for repentance. And if 
this be not in order to find favour, what does he do 
them for?" 

By justification he does not mean that general be- 
nevolence of our merciful God, manifested in the atone- 
ment ; this is certainly previous to any thing we can 
do to find it. Much less does he mean what Dr. Crisp 
calls eternal justification. But the justification of 
which he speaks, is either that public and final justifi- 
cation which our Lord mentions in the gospel, when 
he says, " By thy ivords thou shalt be justified" allu- 
ding to the day of judgment : or he means the forgive- 
ness of sin, and the witness of it. This is what Mr. 
Wesley and St. Paul generally mean by justification. 

And now, do not Scripture, common sense, and ex- 
perience, show that something must be done in order 

2 



26 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



to attain and find, though not to merit and purchase 
this justification ?• 

1 . Please to answer the following questions, founded 
upon the express declarations of God's word. To him 
that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the 
salvation of God. Is ordering our conversation aright, 
doing nothing? Repent ye and be converted, that 
your sins may be blotted out. Are repentance and 
conversion nothing ? Come unto me all ye that are 
heavy laden, and I 'will give you rest, — I will justify 
you. Is coming doing nothing ? Cease to do evil, 
learn to do well. Come now, let us reason together, 
and though your sins be red as crimson, they shall 
be white as snow, — you shall be justified. Is ceasing 
to do evil, and learning to do well, doing nothing? 
Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him 
tvhile he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him 
return unto the Lord, who will have mercy upon him, 
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 
Is seeking, calling, forsaking one's way, and return- 
ing to the Lord, a mere nothing ? Ask, and you shall 
receive; seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall 
be opened unto you. Yea, take the kingdom of hea- 
ven by force. Is seeking, asking, knocking, and 
taking by force, absolutely nothing? When you have 
answered these questions, I will throw one or two hun- 
dred more of the like kind in your way. 

Let us now see if reason is not for Mr. Wesley, as 
well as Scripture. Do you not maintain that believing 
is necessary in order to our justification ? If )^ou do, 
you subscribe to Mr. Wesley's heresy ; for believing is 
not only doing something, but necessarily supposes a 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 27 

variety of things. Faith cometh by hearings and 
sometimes by reading, which implies attending the mi- 
nistry of the word, and searching- the Scriptures, as the 
Bereans did. It likewise presupposes at least the atten- 
tion of the mind, and consent of the heart, to a revealed 
truth ; or the consideration, approbation, and receiving 
an object proposed to us : nay, it implies renouncing 
worldly, and seeking divine honour. What a variety 
of things is therefore implied in believing, which we 
cannot but acknowledge to be previous to justification ! 
Who can then blame Mr. Wesley for saying some- 
thing must be done in order to justification ? 

Again, if nothing be required of us in order to justi- 
fication, who can find fault with those that die in a state 
of condemnation ? They were born in sin, and chil- 
dren of ivrath, and nothing was required of them in, 
order to find favour: it remains, therefore, that they are 
damned, through an absolute decree, made thousands 
of years before they had any existence ! If some can. 
swallow this camel with the greatest ease, I doubt, sir, 
it will not go down with you, without bearing very 
hard upon the knowledge you have of the God of love, 
and the gospel of Jesus. 

Once more : Mr. Wesley concludes his proposition 
with a very pertinent question : — " When a man that is 
not justified, does works meet for repentance, what 
does he do them for ?" Permit me to answer it accord- 
ing to Scripture and common sense. If he do them in 
order to purchase the divine favour, he is under a self- 
righteous delusion ; but if he do them, as Mr. W. says, 
in order to find what Christ has purchased for him, he 
acts the part of a wise Protestant. 

Should you sajr that such a penitent does works meet 



28 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



for repentance from a sense of gratitude for redeeming 
love, I answer. This is impossible ; for that love must be 
shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given him, 
in consequence of his justification, before he can act 
from a sense of that love, and the gratitude which it 
excites. I hope it is no heresy to maintain that the 
cause must go before the effect. I conclude, then, that 
those who have not yet found the pardoning love of 
God, do works meet for repentance in order to find it. 
They abstain from those outward evils which once they 
pursued ; they do the outward good which the convinc- 
ing Spirit prompts them to ; they use the means of 
grace, confess their sins, and ask pardon for them ; in 
short, they seek the Lord, encouraged by that promise : 
They that seek me early shall find me. And Mr. 
W. supposes they seek in order to find. In the name 
of candour, where is the harm of that supposition 7 
When the poor woman has lost her piece of silver, 
she lights a candle, says our Lord, she sweeps the 
house and searches diligently till she find it. Mr. W. 
asks, If she does not do all this in order to find it, 
what does she do it for ? At this the alarm is taken, 
and the post carries through various provinces printed 
letters against old Mordecai, and a synod is called toge- 
ther to protest againt the dreadful error. 

Having defended Mr. W.'s proposition, from Scripture 
and from common sense, that whoever desires to find 
favour with God, must cease to do evil, and learn to 
do well, permit me also to do it from experience. And 
here I might appeal to the most established persons in 
Mr. Wesley's societies; but as their testimony may 
have little weight with you, I waive it, and appeal to 
all the accounts of sound conversions that have been 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



29 



published since Calvin's days. Show me one, sir, 
wherein it appears that a mourner in Sion found the 
above-described justification, without doing some pre^ 
vious works meet for repentance. If you cannot pro- 
duce one such instance, Mr. Wesley's doctrine is sup- 
ported by the printed experiences of all the converted 
Caivinists, as well as all the believers in his own socie- 
ties. Nor am I afraid to appeal even to the experiences 
of all your own friends. If any one of these can say, 
with a good conscience, that he found the above de- 
scribed justification without first stopping in the career 
of outward sin, without praying, seeking, and confess- 
ing his guilt and misery, I promise to give up the Min- 
utes. But if none can make such a declaration, you 
must grant, sir, that experience is on Mr. Wesley's side 
as much as reason and revelation. 



SECTION II. 
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 

If we must do something in order to justification, 
farewell free justification ; it is no more of grace but 
of works, and consequently of debt. 

Answer. Nothing can be more absurd than to affirm 
that when something is required to be done in order to 
receive a favour, the favour loses the name of a free 
gift, and directly becomes a debt. Long, too long, per- 
sons who have more honesty than wisdom, have been 
frightened from the plain path of duty by a phantom 
of their own making. O may the snare break at last ! 
And why should it not break now ? Have not sophisms 
been wire-drawn, till they break of themselves in the 



30 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



sight of attentive spectators ? I say to two beggars, Hold 
out your hand; here is an alms for you. The one 
complies, and the other refuses. Who in the world will 
dare to say that my charity is no more a free gift, be- 
cause I bestow it only upon the man that held out his 
hand ? Will nothing make it free but my wrenching 
his hand open, or forcing my bounty down his throat ? 
Again : the king says to four rebels, Throw down your 
arms ; surrender, and you shall have a place both in 
my favour and at court. One of them obeys, and be- 
comes a great man ; the others, upon refusal, are caught 
and hanged. What sophister will face me down, that 
the pardon and place of the former are not freely be- 
stowed upon him, because he did something in order to 
obtain them ? 

Once more: the God of providence says, If you 
plough, sow, harrow, fence, and weed your fields, I will 
give the increase, and you shall have a crop. Farmers 
obey ; and are they to believe that, because they do so 
many things toward their harvest, it is not the/ree gift 
of Heaven ? Do not all those who fear God know that 
their ground, seed, cattle, strength, yea, and their very 
life, are the gifts of God 7 Does not this prevent their 
claiming a crop as a debt? and make them confess, 
that though it was suspended on their ploughing, sowing, 
harrowing, &c, it is the unmerited bount)^ of Heaven? 

Apply this to the present case, and you will see that 
our doing something in order to justification does 
not in the least hinder it from being a free gift ; be- 
cause, whatever we do in order to it, we do it by the 
grace of God preventing us, that we may have a good 
will, and working with us when we have that good 
will; all being of free, most absolutely free grace, 



I 

BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 31 

through the merits of Christ. And nevertheless, so 
sure as the farmer, in the appointed ways of Providence, 
shall have no harvest if he do nothing toward it, a 
professor in the appointed ways of grace (let him talk 
of finished salvation all the year round) shall go with- 
out justification and salvation, unless he do something 
toward them. " He that goeth forth weeping" says 
the psalmist, " bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with 
him" " Be not deceived" says the apostle ; " what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And 
he only that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit 
reap life everlasting." David, therefore, and St. Paul, 
must be proved enemies to free grace before Mr. Wesley 
can be represented as such, for they both sowed in tears 
before they reaped in joy ; their doctrine and experi- 
ence went hand in hand together. 



CHAPTER II. 
ON THE MERIT OF GOOD WORKS- 
SECTION I. 

Having cautioned against the popish abuse of Wes- 
ley's doctrine of the excellence of works, and shown the 
evangelical use that a real Protestant should make of 
it, I return to the word " merit, of which we have been 
so dreadfully afraid." Let a comparison help thee to 
understand how a believer may use it in a very harm- 
less sense. 

The king promises rewards for good pictures to mi- 
serable foundlings whom he has charitably brought 
up, and graciously admitted into his royal academy of 



32 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



painting. Far from being masters of their art, they can 
of themselves do nothing but spoil canvass, and waste 
colours by making monstrous figures : but the king's 
son, a perfect painter, by his father's leave, guides their 
hands, and by that means good pictures are produced, 
though not so excellent as they would have been had 
not he made them by their stiff and clumsy hands. 
The king, however, approves of them, and fixes the 
reward of each picture according to its peculiar merit. 
If you say that the poor foundlings, owing all to his 
majesty, and the prince's having freely guided their 
hands, themselves merited nothing ; because, after all 
they have done, they are miserable daubers still, and 
nothing is properly theirs but the imperfections of the 
pictures, and therefore the king's reward, though it may 
be of promise, can never be of debt ; I grant it, I assert 
it. But if you say the good pictures have no merit, I 
beg leave to dissent from thee, and tell thee thou speak- 
est as unadvisedly for the king as Job's friends did for 
God. For if the pictures have absolutely no merit, 
dost thou not greatly reflect upon the king's taste and 
wisdom in saying that he rewards them? In the 
name of common sense, what is it he rewards? The 
merit, or demerit, of the work ? 

But this is not all; if the pictures have no merit, 
what hath the king's son been doing? Hath he lost 
all his trouble in helping the novices to sketch and 
finish them ? Shall we deny the excellence of his per- 
formance, because they were concerned in it? Shall 
we be guilty of this glaring partiality any longer ? No ; 
some Protestants will dare to judge righteous judgment, 
and acknowledge there is merit where Christ pats it, 
and where God rewards it ; they will give honour to 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



33- 



whom honour is due, even to him that worketh all 
the good in all his creatures. 

For my part, I entirely agree with the author of the 
Minutes, and thank him for daring to break the ice of 
prejudice and bigotry among us, by restoring toorks 
of righteousness to their deserved glory, without de- 
tracting from the glory of the Lord our righteousness. 
I am as much persuaded that the grace of Christ merits 
in the works of his members, though they themselves 
merit nothing but hell, as I am persuaded that gold in 
the ore hath its intrinsic worth, though it is mixed with 
dust and dross, which are good for nothing. 

Mr. Baxter remarks as follows : " The word merit, 
rightly explained, is not amiss. All the fathers of the 
primitive church have made use of it without opposition, 
to my remembrance. It may be used by believers who 
do not make a cloak for error, by wise men who will 
not be offended at it, and by those who want to defend 
the truth, and convey clearer ideas in the explanation 
of things intricate. There is no word that fully con- 
veys the same idea : that which comes nearest to it is 
dignity, and suspicious persons will not like it much 
better. We have three words in the New Testament 
that come very near it, a^ioc, ptodoc, and dinatos, and they 
occur pretty frequently there. We render them worthy, 
reward, and just ; and the abuse which Papists make 
of them ought not to make us reject their use. The 
English word worthy conveys no other idea than that 
of the Latin word meritum, taken actively ; nor has 
the word reward any other signification than the word 
meritum, taken passively ; therefore they who can put 
a candid sense upon the words worthy and reward, 
should do the same with regard to the word merit? 

2* 



34 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



SECTION II. 

CALVINISTIC REASONING RESPECTING REPROBATION 
ANSWERED. 

" If all have sinned in Adam, and the icages of 
sin is death, God did the reprobates no wrong when 
he condemned them to eternal torments, before they 
knew their right hand from their left ; yea, before 
the foundation of the worldP 

Ans. The plausibility of this reasoning, heightened 
by voluntary humility, has misled thousands of pious 
souls : God give them understanding to weigh the fol- 
lowing reflections ! 

1. If an unconditional, absolute decree of damnation 
passed upon the reprobates before the foundation of the 
world, it is absurd to account for the justice of such a 
decree, by appealing to a sin committed after the founda- 
tion of the world. 

2. If Adam sinned necessarily according to the secret 
will and purpose of God, as you intimate in your 
fourth letter, many do not see how he, much more his 
posterity, could justly be condemned to eternal torments 
for doing an iniquity which God's hand and counsel 
determined before to be done. 

3. As we sinned only seminally in Adam, if God 
had not intended our redemption, his goodness would 
have engaged him to destroy us seminally, by crush- 
ing the capital offender who contained us all ; so there 
w T ould have been a just proportion between the sin and 
the punishment; for as we sinned in Adam without 
the least consciousness of guilt, so in him we should 
have been punished without the least consciousness of 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



35 



pain. This observation may be illustrated by an ex- 
ample. If I catch a mischievous animal — a viper, for 
instance — I have undoubtedly a right to kill her, and 
destroy her dangerous brood, if she is big with young. 
But if, instead of despatching her as soon as I can, I 
feed her, on purpose to get many broods from her, and 
torment to death millions of her offspring, I can hardly 
pass for the good man who regards the life of a beast. 
Leaving to you the application of this simile, I ask, Do 
we honour God when we break the equal beams of his 
perfections — when we blacken his goodness and mercy, 
in order to make his justice and greatness shine with 
exorbitant lustre? If "a God all mercy is a God un- 
just," may we not say, according to the rule of propor- 
tion, that " a God all justice is a God unkind," and can 
never be he whose mercy is over all his works ? 

4. But the moment we allow that the blessing of the 
second Adam is as general as the curse of the first; 
that God sets again life and death before every indi- 
vidual ; and that he mercifully restores to all a capacity 
of choosing life, yea, and of having it one day more 
abundantly than Adam himself had before the fall, we 
see his goodness and justice shine with equal radiance, 
when he spares guilty Adam to propagate the fallen 
race, that they may share the blessings of a better 
covenant. For, according to the Adamic law, judg- 
ment to as by one sin to condemnation ; but the free 
gift of the gospel is of many offences to justifica- 
tion. For if through the offence of one, the many 
he dead ; much more the grace of God, and the gift 
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath 
abounded unto many. 

5. Rational and Scriptural as the preceding observa- 



3o 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



tions are, we could spare them, and answer your objec- 
tion thus: You think God may justly decree that mil- 
lions of his unborn creatures shall be vessels of wrath 
to all eternity, overflowing with the vengeance due to 
Adam's preordained sin : but you are not nearer the 
mark : for, granting that he could do it as a just, good, 
and merciful God, yet he cannot do it as the God of faith- 
fulness and truth. His word and oath are gone forth 
together ; hear both : " What mean ye that ye use 
this proverb, 1 The fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
and the children? s teeth are set on edge V As I live, 
saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any 
more to use this proverb. The soid that sinneth 
[personally] it shall die [eternally;] every one shall 
die for his own [avoidable] iniquity. Every man 
that eateth sour grapes" when he might have eaten 
the sweet, " his teeth shall be justly set on edge." 
When God has thus made oath of his equity and im- 
partiality before mankind, it is rather bold to charge 
him with contriving Calviu's election, and setting up 
the Protestant great image, before which a considerable 
part of the church bows down and worships. 

Think not. honoured sir, that I say about free wrath 
what I cannot possibly prove, for you help me yourself 
to a striking demonstration. I suppose you are still 
upon your travels. You come to the borders of a great 
empire, and the first thing that strikes you is a man in 
an easy carriage going with folded arms to take posses- 
sion of an immense estate, freely given him by the king 
of the country. As he flies along, you just make out the 
motto of the royal chariot, in which he dozes, Free Re- 
ward. Soon after you meet five of the king's carts, 
containing twenty w T retches loaded with irons : and the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



37 



motto of every cart is, Free Punishment. You 
inquire into the meaning of this extraordinary proces- 
sion, and the sheriff attending the execution answers : 
" Know, curious stranger, that our monarch is absolute, 
and to show that sovereignty is the prerogative of his 
imperial crown, and that he is no respecter of per sons ; 
he distributes every day free rewards and free 'pun- 
ishments to a certain number of his subjects." "What! 
without any regard to merit or demerit, by mere ca- 
price?" "Not altogether so, for he pitches upon the 
worst of men, and chief of sinners, and upon such 
to choose, for the subjects of his rewards. (Elisha 
Coles, page 62.) And that his punishments may do 
as much honour to free sovereign torath as his bounty 
does to free sovereign grace, he pitches upon those 
that shall be executed before they are born." " What ! 
have these poor creatures in chains done no harm ?" " O 
yes," says the sheriff, " the king contrived that their pa- 
rents should let them fall and break their legs, before 
they had any knowledge ; when they came to the years 
of discretion, he commanded them to run a race with 
broken legs, and because they cannot do it, I am going 
to see them quartered. Some of them, besides this, 
have been obliged to fulfil the king's secret will, and 
bring about his purposes ; and they shall be burned in 
yonder deep valley, called Tophet, for their trouble." 
You are shocked at the sheriff's account, and begin 
to expostulate with him against the freeness of the 
wrath which burns a man for doing the king's will ; 
but all the answer you can get from him is, that which 
you give me in your fourth letter, page 23, where, speak- 
ing of a poor reprobate, you say, " Such a one is in- 
deed accomplishing" the king's, you say, "God's decree, 



38 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



but he carries a dreadful mark in his forehead, that 
such a decree is, that he shall be punished with ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of the lord" of 
the country. You cry out, " God deliver me from the 
hand of a monarch who punishes with everlasting 
destruction such as accomplish his decree ! And while 
the magistrate intimates that your exclamation is a 
dreadful mark, if not in your forehead, at least upon 
your tongue, that you yourself shall be apprehended 
against the next execution, and made a public instance 
against the king's free wrath, your blood runs cold, you 
bid the postillion turn the horses ; they gallop for life, 
and the moment you get out of the dreary land, you 
bless God for your narrow escape. 

May reason and Scripture draw your soul with equal 
speed from the dismal fields of Cole's sovereignty to 
the smiling plains, of primitive Christianity ! Here you 
have God's election, without Calvin's reprobation. Here 
Christ chooses the Jews, without rejecting the Gentiles, 
and elects Peter, James, and John, to the enjoyment of 
peculiar privileges, without reprobating Matthew, Tho- 
mas, and Simon. Here nobody is damned for not 
doing impossibilities, or for doing what he could not 
possibly help. Here all that are saved enjoy rewards 
through the merits of Christ, according to the degrees 
of evangelical obedience which the Lord enables, not 
forces thern, to perform. Here free wrath never ap- 
peared : all our damnation is of ourselves, 'when we 
neglect such great salvation, by obstinately refusing 
to work it out with fear and trembling. But this is 
not all : here free grace does not rejoice over stocks, 
but over men, who gladly confess that their salvation 
is all of God, who for Christ's sake rectifies their free 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



39 



agency, helps their infirmities, and works in them both 
to ivill and to do of his good pleasure. And from the 
tenor of the Scripture, as well as from the consent of all 
nations, and the dictates of conscience, it appears, that 
part of God's good pleasure toward man is, that he 
shall remain invested with the awful power of choosing 
life or death, that his will shall never be forced, and con- 
sequently, that overbearing, irresistible grace shall be 
banished to the land of Cole's sovereignty, together with 
free, absolute, unavoidable wrath. 

Now, honoured sir, permit me to ask, Why does this 
doctrine alarm good men? Why are those divines 
deemed heretics who dare not divest God of his essen- 
tial love, Emanuel of his compassionate humanity, 
and man of his connatural free agency ? What are 
Dominicus and Calvin, when weighed in the balance 
against Moses and Jesus Christ 1 Hear the great pro- 
phet of the Jews, / call heaven and earth to record 
this day against you, that I have set before you life 
and death, blessing and cursing, [heaven and hell,] 
therefore choose life that ye may live. And he that 
hath ears, not yet absolutely stopped by prejudice, let 
him hear what the great prophet of the Christians says 
upon the important question: I am come that tuey 
might have life ; — all things are now ready ; — / 
would have gathered you, and ye would not. Be- 
cause I have called, and ye refused, I will laugh when 
your destruction cometh. For that they did not choose 
the fear of the Lord, therefore shall they eat, not the 
fruit of my decree, or of Adam's sin, but of their 
own perverse way : they shall be filed with their own 
doings. 

Our Calvinian brethren assert, that God binds his 



40 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



free grace, and keeps it from visiting millions of sinners 
whom they call reprobates. They teach, that man is 
not in a state of probation, that his lot is absolutely 
cast, a certain little number of souls being immoveably 
fixed in God's favour in the midst of all their abomi- 
nations ; and a certain vast number under his eternal 
wrath, in the midst of their most sincere endeavours to 
secure his favour. And their teachers maintain that 
the names of the former were written in the book of 
life, without any respect to foreseen repentance, faith, 
and obedience : while the names of the latter were put 
in the book of death (so I call the decree of reprobation) 
merely for the sin of Adam, without any regard to per- 
sonal impenitenc}^, unbelief, and ' disobedience. And 
this narrow grace and free wrath they recommend to 
the world under the engaging name of free grace. 



SECTION III. 

CALVINIAN REPROBATIOX INCONSISTENT WITH THE 
PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

1. What becomes of God's goodness if the tokens 
of it, which he gives to millions, be only intended to 
enhance their ruin, or cast a deceitful veil over his ever- 
lasting wrath? What becomes of his mercy, which is 
over all his works, if millions were for ever excluded 
from the least interest in it by an absolute decree that 
constitutes them vessels of wrath from all eternity? 
What becomes of his justice, if he sentences myriads 
upon myriads to everlasting fire because they have not 
believed on the name of his only begotten Son, when, 
if they had believed that he was their Jesus, their Sa- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



41 



viour, they would have believed a monstrous lie, and 
claimed what they have no more right to than I have 
to the crown of England? What becomes of his vera- 
city and the oath he swears, that he willeth not the 
death of a sinner, if he never affords most sinners suf- 
ficient means of escaping eternal death ? If he sends 
his ambassadors to every creature, declaring that all 
things are now ready for their salvation, when nothing 
but tophet is prepared of old, for the inevitable de- 
struction of a vast majority of them ? What becomes 
of his holiness, if, in order to condemn the reprobates 
with some show of justice, and secure the end of his 
decree of reprobation, which is, that "millions shall 
absolutely be damned," he absolutely fixes the means 
of their damnation, that is, their sins and wickedness ? 
What becomes of his wisdom, if he seriously expos- 
tulates with souls as dead as corpses, and gravely urges 
to repentance and faith persons that can no more repent 
and believe than fishes can speak and sing? What 
becomes of his long-suffering, if he waits to have an 
opportunity of sending the reprobates into a deeper hell, 
and not to give them a longer time to save themselves 
from this perverse generation ? What of his equity, 
if there was mercy for Adam and Eve, who personally 
breaking the hedge of duty, wantonly rushed out of 
Paradise into this howling wilderness ; and yet there 
is no mercy for millions of their unfortunate children, 
who are born in a state of sin and misery, without any 
personal choice, and consequently without any person- 
al sin ? And what becomes of his omniscience, if he 
cannot foreknow future contingencies? If to foretel 
without a mistake that such a thing shall happen, he 
must do it himself? Was not Nero as wise in this 



42 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



respect ? Could he not foretel that Phebe should not 
continue a virgin when he was bent upon ravishing 
her ? That Seneca should not die a natural death, 
when he had determined to have him murdered 1 And 
that Crispus should fall into a pit, if he obliged him to 
run a race at midnight in a place full of pits ? And 
what old woman in the kingdom cannot precisely fore- 
tel that a silly tale shall be told at such an hour, if sbe 
is resolved to tell it herself, or at any rate to engage a 
child to do it for her ? 

Again, What becomes of God's loving ki?idnesses 
which have been ever of old toward the children of 
men? And what of his impartiality, if most men, 
absolutely reprobated for the sin of Adam, are never 
placed in a state of personal trial and probation ? Does 
not God use them far less kindly than devils, who were 
tried every one for himself, and remain in their diaboli- 
cal state, because they brought it upon themselves by a 
personal choice? Astonishing! that the Son of God 
should have been flesh of the flesh, and bone of the 
bone of millions of men, whom, upon the Calvinian 
scheme, he never indulged so far as he did devils ! What 
a hard-hearted relation to myriads of his fellow-men 
does Calvin represent our Lord? Suppose Satan had 
become our kinsman by incarnation, and had by that 
means got the right of redemption ; would he not 
have acted like himself, if he had only left the majority 
of them in the depth of the fall, but enhanced their 
misery by the sight of his partiality to the little flock 
of (he elect ? # 

Once more, What becomes of fair dealing, if God 
everywhere represents sin as the dreadful evil which 
causes damnation, and yet the most horrid sins work 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



43 



for good to some, and, as you intimate, " accomplish 
their salvation through Christ?" And what of honesty, 
if the God of truth himself promises that all the fami- 
lies of the earth shall be blessed in Christ, when he 
has cursed a vast majority of them with a decree of 
absolute reprobation, which excludes them from obtain- 
ing an interest in him, even from the foundation of the 
world ? 

Nay, what becomes of his sovereignty itself, if it be 
torn from the mild and gracious attributes by which it 
is tempered? If it be held forth in such a light as 
renders it more terrible to millions than the sovereignty 
of Nebuchadnezzar, in the plain of Dura, appeared to 
Daniel's companions, when the form of his visage 
was changed against them, and he decreed that they 
should be cast into the burning fiery furnace ; for 
they might have saved their bodily lives by bowing to 
the golden image, which was a thing in their power ; 
but poor reprobates can escape at no rate : the horrible 
decree is gone forth ; they must, in spite of their best 
endeavours, dwell body and soul with everlasting 
burnings. 

Let none say that we wrong the Calvinian decree 
of reprobation when we call it a horrible decree, for 
Calvin himself is honest enough to call it so. " How 
comes it to pass," says Calvin, " that so many nations, 
together with their infant children, are, by the fall of 
Adam, involved in eternal death without remedy, unless 
it is because God would have it so? A horrible decree, 
I confess ! Nevertheless, nobody can deny that God 
foreknew what would be man's end before he created 
him, and that he foreknew it because he had ordered 
it by his decree." — Calv. Inst-, book iii, ch. xxiii, sec. 7. 



44 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 

" What becomes of God's wisdom, if he gave his 
Son to die for all mankind, when he foreknew that 
most men would never be benefited by his death V 

Ans. L God foreknew just the contrary ; all men, 
even those who perish, are benefited by Christ's death ; 
for all enjoy through him a day of salvation, and a 
thousand blessings, both spiritual and temporal; and 
if all do not enjoy heaven for ever, they may thank 
God for his gracious ofTer, and take the blame upon 
themselves for their obstinate refusal of it. 

2. God, by reinstating all mankind in a state of pro- 
bation, for ever shuts the mouths of those who choose 
death in the error of their ways, and clears himself of 
their blood before men and angels. If he cannot eter- 
nally benefit unbelievers, he eternally vindicates his own 
adorable perfections. He can say to the most obstinate 
of all reprobates, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: 
in me was thy help ; but thou wouldst not come unto 
me that thou mightest have life. Thy destruction is 
not from my decree, but thine own determination. 



CHAPTER III. 

AN ANSWER TO SEVERAL CALVINIAN DOGMAS 
RESPECTING THE ELECT. 

I. "David, notwithstanding his horrible backslidings, 
did not lose the character of the man after Gods own 
heart? 

You will permit me to believe the contrary : 

1. Upon the testimony of the Psalmist himself, who 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



45 



says, in your favourite Psalm, " Thou hast cast off and 
abhorred, thou hast been very wroth with thine anoint- 
ed ; thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant ; 
thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the 
ground" Psalm lxxxix, 38. 

2. Where is David called " the man after God's own 
heart" while he continued an impenitent adulterer? 
How much more guarded is the Scripture than your 
letters ? " David did. that which was right in the eyes 
of the Lord, and turned not aside, save only in the 
matter of Uriah" 1 Kings xv, 5. Here you see the 
immoral parenthesis of ten months spent in adultery 
and murder expressly pointed at, and excepted by the 
Holy Ghost. 

3. David himself, far from thinking that sin could 
never separate between God and a just man who draws 
back into wickedness, speaks thus in the last charge 
which he gave to Solomon : " And thou, Solomon, my 
son, knoio the God of thy father, and serve him with 
a perfect heart. If thou seek him, he will be found 
of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off 
for ever," 1 Chron. xxviii, 9. Hence it appears that 
the God of Solomon's father is very different from the 
picture which Dr. Crisp draws of David's God. The 
former can be so displeased with an impenitent back- 
slider as to cast him off for ever ; while the latter ac- 
counts him a pleasant child still. 

II. " As soon shall Satan pluck Christ's crown from 
his head, as his purchase from his hand" 

Ans. Here is a great truth making way for a palpa- 
ble error, and a dreadful insinuation. 

1. Let us see the great truth. It is, indeed, most 



46 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



certain that nobody shall ever be able to pluck Christ's 
sheep, that is, penitent believers, who hear his voice and 
follow him, (John x, 27,) out of his protecting almighty 
hand. But if the minds of those penitent believers 
are corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ ; if 
they wax wanton against him, turn after Satan, end 
in the flesh, and draw back to perdition ; if, growing 
fat, and, kicking like .Teshurun, they neigh like high 
fed horses after their neighbours' wives : we demand 
proof that they belong to the fold of Christ, and are not 
rather goats and wolves in sheep's clothing, who can- 
not, without conversion, enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. 

2. The palpable error is, that none of them for 
whom Christ died can be cast away and destroyed ; 
that no virgin's lamp can go out ; no promising har- 
vest be choked with thorns ; no branch of Christ cut 
off for unfruitfulness ; no pardon forfeited, and no 
name blotted out of God's book; — that no salt can 
lose its savour, nobody receive the grace of God in 
vain, bury his talent, neglect such great salvation, 
trifle away a day of visitation, look back after setting 
his hand to the plough, and grieve the Spirit until he 
is quenched, and strives no more. This error, so con- 
ducive to Laodicean ease, is expressly opposed by St. 
Peter, who informs us that they deny the Lord that 
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruc- 
tion. Christ himself, far from desiring to keep his 
lukewarm purchase in his hand, declares that he will 
spew them out of his mouth. 

3. A dreadful insinuation. While you perpetually 
try to comfort a few elect, some of whom, for aught you 
know, comfort themselves already with their neigh- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



47 



bours' wives, (like David,) yea, and the wives of their 
fathers, (like the incestuous Corinthians ;) please tell us 
how we shall comfort millions of reprobates, who, for 
what you know, try to save themselves from this adul- 
terous generation ? Do you not hear how Satan, upon 
a supposition of the truth of your doctrine, triumphs 
over those unhappy victims of what some call God's 
sovereignty ? While that old murderer shakes his bloody 
hand over the myriads devoted to endless torments, 
methinks I hear him say to his fellow-executioners of 
divine vengeance, "As soon shall Christ's crown be 
plucked from his head as this his free gift from my 
hand. Let yonder little flock of the elect commit 
adultery and incest without any possibility of missing 
heaven. I object no more. See what crowds of repro- 
bates may pray, and reform, and strive, without any 
possibility of escaping hell. Let those gay elect shout, 
Everlasting love ! Eternal justification / and, Finished 
salvation ! I consent! See, ye friends, see the immense 
prey that awaits us, and roar with me beforehand, 
Everlasting wrath ! Eternal reprobation ! and, Fin- 
ished damnation!" 

III. " The Lord has promised to make all things 
work for good to them that love him ; and if all things, 
then their very sins and corruptions are included in 
the royal promise." 

Ans. If this is the love of God that we keep his 
commandments, how will you prove that David loved 
God when he left his own wife for that of Uriah? 
Does not our Lord declare that those who will not 
forsake husband, wife, children, and all things, for 
Christ 1 s sake, are not worthy of him, either as believers 



48 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



or lovers ? And are those worthy of him who break his 
commandments, and take their neighbours' wives? 

Again ; if St. John, speaking of one wbo does not 
relieve an indigent brother, asks with indignation, How 
dwelleth the love of God in him? may not I, with 
greater reason, sa} r , " How dwelt the love of God in 
David?" who, far from assisting Uriah, murdered his 
soul by drunkenness, and his body with the sword ! 
And if David did not love God, how can you believe 
that a promise made to those that love God respected 
him in this state of impenitency ? 

2. When we extol free grace, and declare that Gotfs 
mercy is over all his works, you directly answer, that 
the word all must be taken in a limited sense: but 
when you extol the profitableness of sin, all, in all 
things working for good, must be taken universally, 
and include sin and corruption, contrary to the con- 
text. I say, contrary to the context ; for, just before, 
the apostle declares, 11 If ye live after the flesh, ye shall 
die ;" ye shall evidence the truth of Ezekiel's doctrine, 
" When the righteous man turneih away from his 
righteousness, in his sin that he hath sinned shall he 
die? and at the end of the chapter the things that 
work for good are enumerated, and they include all 
tribulations, and creatures, but not our own sin, unless 
you can prove it to be God's creature, and not the devil's 
production. 

3. It is nowhere promised that sin shall do us good ; 
on the contrary, God constantly represents it as the 
greatest evil in the world, the root of all other temporal 
and eternal evils : and as he makes it the object of his 
invariable disapprobation, so, till they repent, he levels 
his severest threatenings at sinners without respect of 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



49 



persons. But the author of " Pietas Oxoniensis" has 
made a new discovery. Through the glass of Dr. 
Crisp he sees that one of the choicest promises in Scrip- 
ture respects the commission of sin, of theft and incest, 
adultery and murder ! So grossly are threatenings and 
promises, punishments and rewards, confounded toge- 
ther by this fashionable divinity ! 

4. I grant that, in some cases, the punishment in- 
flicted upon a sinner has been overruled for good ; but 
what is this to the sin itself? Is it reasonable to ascribe 
to sin the good that may spring from the rod with which 
sin is punished? Some robbers have, perhaps, been 
brought to repentance by the gallows, and others de- 
terred from committing robbery by the terror of their 
punishment ; but by what rule in logic or divinity can 
we infer from thence, either that any robbers love God, 
or that all robberies shall work together for their good 1 

IV. " How has many a poor soul, who has been 
faithless through fear of man, even blessed God for 
Peter's denial /" 

Ans. Surely, sir, you mistake ; none but the friend 
who desired to have Peter that he might sift him 
could bless God for the apostle's crime ; nor could one, 
on such a horrid account, bless any other god but the 
god of this world. David said, My eyes run down 
with water, because men keep not thy law ; but the 
author of "Pietas Oxoniensis" tells us, that "many a 
poor soul has blessed God" for the most horrid breaches 
of his law ! Weep no more, perfidious apostle : thou hast 
cast the net on the right side of the ship ; thy three 
curses have procured God multitudes of blessings! 
Surely, sir, you cannot mean this ! " Many a poor soul 

3 



50 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



has blessed God v for granting a pardon to Peter. 
but never for Peters denial. It is extremely danger- 
ous thus to confound a crime with the pardon granted 
to a penitent criminal. 

Y. " A grievous fall serves to make believers know 
their place." 

Axs. ISo. indeed : it serves only to make them for- 
get their place : witness David, who. far from know- 
ing his place, wickedly took that of Uriah : and Eve, 
who. by falling into the condemnation of the devil, took 
her Makers place, in her imagination; and esteemed 
herself as wise as God. 

YI. "A grievous fall drives believers nearer to 
Christ" 

Axs. Surely you mistake, sir : you mean nearer to 
the devil : for a fall into pride may drive me nearer 
Lucifer, a fall into adultery and murder may drive me 
nearer Belial and Moloch : but not nearer to Jesus 
Christ. 

VII. " A grievous fall makes them more depend- 
ant on Christ for strength^ 

Aks. No such thing. The genuine effect of a fall 
into sin is to stupify the conscience and harden the 
heart ; witness the state of obstinacy in which God 
found Adam, and the state of carnal security in which 
Nathan found David, after their crimes. 

Till. It keeps them more watch ful for the 
future" 

A>~s. Just the reverse of this : it prevents their watch- 
ing for the future. If David had been more watchful 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



51 



by falling into adultery, would he have fallen into 
treachery and murder ? If Peter had been more watch- 
ful by his first falling into perjury, would he have fallen 
three times successively? 

IX. " It will cause believers to sympathize with 
others in like situation" 

Ans. By no means. A fall into sin will naturally 
make us desirous of drawing another into our guilty 
condition. Witness the devil and Eve, Eve and Adam, 
David and Bathsheba. The royal adulterer was so far 
from sympathizing with the man who had unkindly 
taken his neighbour's ewe lamb, that he directly swore, 
As the Lord livethj the man that has done this thing' 
shall surely die. 

X. " It will make them sing louder to the praise 
of restoring grace throughout all the ages of eter- 
nity" 

Ans. I demand proof of this. I greatly question 
whether Demas, Alexander the coppersmith, Hyme- 
neus, Philetus, and many of the fallen believers men- 
tioned in the epistles of our Lord to the fallen churches 
of Asia, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in those of 
St. Peter, St. James, and St. Jude, shall sing restoring 
grace at all. The apostle, far from representing them 
as singing louder, gives us to understand that many 
of them shall be thought worthy of a much sorer 
punishment than the sinners consumed by fire from 
heaven ; and that there remaineth no more sacrifice 
for their sins; (a sure proof that Christ's sacrifice 
.availed for them till they accounted the blood of the 
covenant an unholy thing ;) for, adds the apostle, The 
Lord will judge his people, and, notwithstanding all 



52 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



that Dr. Crisp says to the contrary, There remaineth 
(for apostates) a certain fearful looking for of judg- 
ment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the 
adversaries. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, 
and not "louder songs/' await the unprofitable ser- 
' want. 

But supposing some are renewed to repentance, and 
escape out of the snare of the devil; can you imagine 
they will be upon the footing of those who, standing 
steadfast and immoveable, always abounded in the 
work of the Lord ? Shall, then, the labour of these 
be in vain in the Lord ? Are not our works to follow 
us ? Shall the unprofitable servant, if restored, receive 
a crown of life equal to his who, from the time he en- 
listed, always fought the good fight, and kept the 
faith ? The doctrine you would inculcate bears hard 
upon the equity of the divine conduct, and strikes a 
fatal blow at the root of all diligence and faithfulness, 
so strongly recommended in the oracles of God. 

You will be sensible of your error, if you observe that 
all the fine things which you tell us of a fall into sin, 
belong not to the fall, but to a happy recovery from it; 
and my honoured correspondent is as much mistaken, 
when he ascribes to sin the effects of repentance and 
faith, as if he ascribed to a frost the effects of a thaw, 
or to sickness the consequence of a recovery. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



33 



CHAPTER IV. 
ON THE DOCTRINE OF A TWOFOLD JUSTIFICATION. 

I shall by the following syllogism demonstrate, 
that justification in the day of our conversion, and jus- 
tification in the last day, are no more one single act, 
than the day of the sinner's conversion, and that of 
judgment are one single day. 

Two acts, which diner as to time, place, person, wit- 
nesses, and circumstances, cannot be one single act; 
(the one may be done when the other remains undone.) 
But our first justification at conversion thus differs from 
our second justification in the great day. Therefore 
our first and second justification cannot be one single 
act. 

The second proposition, which alone is disputable, 
may be thus abundantly proved. Our first and second 
justification differ: 1. With respect to time; the time 
of the one is the hour of conversion ; and the time of 
the other, the day of judgment. 2. With respect to 
the place ; the place of the former is the earth ; and 
the place of the latter is the awful spot where the tri- 
bunal of Christ shall be erected. 3. With respect to 
the witnesses : the witnesses of the former are the Spirit 
of God and our own conscience ; or to speak in Scrip- 
ture language, The Spirit bearing witness with our 
spirits that we are the children of God : but the wit- 
nesses of the latter will be the countless myriads of 
men and angels assembled before Christ. 4. With re- 
spect to the Justifier: in the former justification, one 



54 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



God justifies the circumcision and uncircumcision ; 
and in the latter, one Mediator between God and, man, 
even the man Christ Jesus, will pronounce the sentence, 
for the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all 
judgment to the Son. 5. With respect to the justi- 
fied : in the day of conversion, a penitent sinner is 
justified ; in the day of judgment a persevering saint. 
6. With respect to the article upon which justification 
will turn : although the meritorious cause of both our 
justifications is the same, that is, the blood and right- 
eousness of Christ, yet the instrumental cause is very 
different, by faith we obtain (not purchase) the first, 
and by works the second. 7. With respect to the act 
of the Justifier : at our conversion God covers and 
pardons our sins ; but in the day of judgment, Christ 
uncovers and approves our righteousness. And lastly, 
with regard to the consequences of both : at the first 
justification, we are enlisted by the Friend of sinners 
to fight the good fight of faith in the church mili- 
tant; and at the second, we are admitted by the right- 
eous Judge to receive a crown of righteousness, and 
shine like the sun in the church triumphant. 

If righteous Lot had died when he repeated the 
crimes of drunkenness and incest, his justification would 
have been turned into condemnation, according to St. 
Paul's plain rule, If thou be a breaker of the law, thy 
circumcision is made uncircumcision : for neither 
the holy God, nor any virtuous man, can possibly jus- 
tify a sinner upon the evidence of drunkenness and 
incest. 

If Solomon, doting upon heathenish young women, 
and led astray by them into abominable idolatries, 
had died before he was brought again to repentance, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



55 



he could never have seen the kingdom of God : — he 
would have perished in his sin : unless Geneva logic 
can make it appear, in direct opposition to the word 
of God, that the impenitent shall not perish, and that 
idolaters shall inherit the kingdom of God, Luke xiii, 
3 ; 1 Cor. vi, 9. 

3. If the incestuous Corinthian had been cut off 
while he defiled his father's bed, the justification granted 
him at his first conversion, far from saving him in the 
day of judgment, would have aggravated his condem- 
nation, and caused him to be counted worthy of a 
much severer punishment than if he had never 
known the way of righteousness, — never been jus- 
tified : unless you can prove that Christ would have 
acquitted him upon the horrid evidence of apostacy and 
incest, which appears to me as difficult a task as to 
prove that Christ and Belial are one and the same 
filthy god. 

If David and Bathsheba had been run through hy 
Uriah, as Zimri and Cozbi were by Phineas ; and if 
they had died in their flagrant wickedness ; no previous 
justification, no Calvinian imputation of righteousness, 
would have secured their justification in the last day. 
For upon the evidence of adultery and premeditated 
murder, they would infallibly have been condemned ; 
according to those awful words of our Lord, I come 
quickly to every man (here is no exception for the 
pleasant children) according as his work shall be, not 
according as my work has been : Blessed are they 
that do his commandments, that they may enter in 
through the gates into the city ; for without are dogs, 
whoremongers, and murderers, Rev. xxii, 12, &c. 

Should you say, It is provided in the decree of abso- 



56 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



lute election, that adulterers who once walked with 
God shall not die till they have repented ; 1. I demand 
proof that there ever was such a decree. In the second 
Pslam, indeed, I read about God's decree respecting 
Christ and mankind ; but it is the very reverse of Cal- 
vin's decree, for it implies general redemption, and 
conditional election. I will declare the decree: thou 
art my son : I will give the heathen for thine in- 
heritance^ and the utmost parts of the earth for 
thy possession. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and 
thou perish from the way. 

2. This evasion is founded upon a most absurd pro- 
position, which sews pillows to the arms of backsliders 
and apostates, by promising them immortality if they 
persevere in sin. But setting aside the absurdity of 
supposing that old Solomon, for example, might have 
kept himself alive till now by assiduously worshipping 
Ashtaroth ; or, which is the same, that he might have 
put off death by putting off repentance, because he 
could not die till he repented, I ask where is this 
strange doctrine written ? Certainly not in the Old Tes- 
tament ; for God asks there with indignation, When the 
righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and 
committeth iniquity, shall he live ? No ; in his 
sin that he hath sinned shall he die, Ezek. xviii, 
24. Much less in the New, where Christ protests that 
he will spew lukewarm believers out of his mouth, 
and that every branch in him which bears not fruit 
shall be taken away or cut off; an awful threatening 
this, which was executed even upon one of the twelve 
apostles; for our Lord himself says, Those that thou 
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost 
but Judas, who fell finally, since he died in the very 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



57 



act of self-murder, and is particularly called the son of 
perdition. 

But granting you, that lest Lot, David, and Solomon 
should be condemned by works in the day of judgment, 
they were to be immortal till they repented and did their 
first works ; this very supposition indicates, that till then 
they were sons of perdition, according to that solemn 
declaration of Truth manifest in the flesh, Except ye 
repent, ye shall all perish. 

As if you were aware of this difficulty, p. 149, you 
have recourse to a noted distinction in Geneva logic, 
by which you hope to secure your favourite doctrine, as 
well as fond Rachel once secured her favourite tera- 
phim. You say, "that though a sinner," (David for 
instance, or Solomon,) "be justified in the sight of 
God by Christ alone, he is declaratively justified by 
works both here and at the day of judgment." 

Now, sir, this necessarily implies, that though David 
in Uriah's bed, and Solomon at the shrine of Ashta- 
roth, were justified in the sight of God by Christ's chas- 
tity and piety imputed to them ; yet before men, and 
before the Judge of quick and dead, they are justified 
by the evidence of their own chastity and piety. This 
distinction, one of the main supports of Calvinism, is 
big with absurdities : for if it be just, it follows, 

1. That while God says of Solomon, worshipping 
the goddess of the Zidonians, He is still a true believer, 
he is justified from all things ; Christ says, By his 
fruit ye shall know him; he is an impenitent, unjus- 
tified idolater ; and St. James, siding with his Master, 
says roundly, that Solomon's faith, being now without 
works, is a dead, unjustifying faith, by which, as well 
as by his bad works, he is condemned already. Now, 

3* 



58 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



sir, it remains that you should give up Antinomian 
Calvinism, or tell us who is grossly mistaken, God or 
Christ : ,for upon your scheme, God says of an impeni- 
tent idolater who once believed in him, " He is fully jus- 
tified by the perfect law of liberty ;" and Christ says, 
" He is fully condemned by the same law !" and reason 
dictates that both parts of a full contradiction cannot 
be true. 

Do not say, that, upon the Calvinian plan, the Fa- 
ther and the Son never contradict one another in the 
matter of a sinner's justification, by the imputation of 
an external righteousness, which constitutes a sinner 
righteous while he commits all sorts of crimes ; and if 
the Son, on the other hand, condemns a sinner for his 
words, much more for the commission of adultery, 
idolatry, and murder ; their sentence must be as fre- 
quently different as a believer acts or speaks contrary 
to the law of liberty. For Christ being the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and for ever, cannot justify, he must 
condemn now, as well as in the day of judgment, every 
man who now acts or speaks wickedly. 

Should you attempt to account for the Father's ima- 
ginary justification of an impenitent idolater, by bring- 
ing in Calvin's decree, and saying that God reckoned 
Solomon a converted man at the shrine of Ashtaroth, 
because he had absolutely decreed (o give him restoring 
grace : I reply, supposing such decrees are not imagi- 
nary, is it not absurd to say, that God reckons that cold 
is heat, and confounds January with July, because he 
has decreed that summer shall follow winter? There- 
fore, which way soever you turn, absurdities or impie- 
ties stare you in the face. 

2. The unreasonableness of Calvinism will appear 



BEAtTTIES OF FLETCHER. 



59 



to you more glaringly still, if you suppose for a mo- 
ment that David died in Uriah's bed. For then, accord- 
ing to Crisp's justification by imputation of Christ's 
chastity, he must have gone straight to heaven ; and 
according to our Lord's condemnation, by the evidence 
of personal adultery, he must have gone straight to 
hell. Thus by the help of Geneva logic, so sure as 
the royal adulterer might have died before Nathan 
stirred him up to repentance, I can demonstrate, that 
David might have been saved and damned, in heaven 
and hell at the same time. 

3. Your distinction insinuates, that there will be two 
days of judgment ; one to tr}^ secretly before God, by 
imputed sin and imputed righteousness ; and the other 
to try us publicly before men and angels, by personal 
sin and personal righteousness — a new doctrine this, 
which every Christian is bound to reject, not only be- 
cause the Scripture is silent about it, but because it fixes 
a shocking duplicity of conduct on God ; for it repre- 
sents him first, as absolutely saving or damning the 
children of men, according to his own capricious impu- 
tation of Christ's righteousness, or Adam's sin ; and 
then as being desirous of making a show of justice 
before men and angels, by pretending to justify or 
condemn people according to their works, when, in 
fact, he has already justified or condemned them with- 
out the least respect to their works ; for say Bishop 
Cowper and Mr. Hill, "In the act of justification, good 
works have no place :" and indeed how should they, if 
free grace and free wrath have unalterably cast the lot 
of all before the foundation of the world ! — or in other 
terms, if finished salvation and finished damnation 
have the stamp of God, as well as that of Calvin ? 



60 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER V. 

REMARKS ON THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF 
JUDAS. 

Let us first inquire what scriptures were fulfilled 
by the perdition of Judas. They are either general or 
particular : 1. The general are such as these ; The 
turning away of the simple shall slay them, Prov. 
i, 32. When the righteous man turneth away from 
his righteousness, [and who can be a righteous man 
without true faith ?] he shall die in his sin. Again : 
When I say to the righteous that he shall surely 
live ; if he trust to his own righteousness, and com- 
mit iniquity, he shall die for it, Ezek. iii, 20 : 
xxxiii, 13. 

2. The particular scriptures fulfilled by the de- 
struction of Judas are these : Psalm xli, 9, Mine own 
familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who did eat of 
my bread, hath lift up his heel against me. These 
words are expressly applied to Judas by our Lord him- 
self, John xiii, 18 ; and they demonstrate that Judas 
was not always a cursed hypocrite, unless Zelotes can 
make it appear that our Lord reposed his trust in a 
hypocrite, whom he had chosen for his own familiar 
friend. Again : Let his days be few, and let an- 
other take his office or bishopric. These words are 
quoted from Psalm cix, and particularly applied to Judas 
by St. Peter, Acts i, 20. Now, to know whether Judas's 
perdition was absolute, flowing from the unconditional 
reprobation of God, and not from Judas's foreseen back- 
sliding, we need only compare the two psalms where his 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



61 



sin and perdition are described. The one informs us 
that, before he lifted up his heel against Christ, he was 
Christ's own familiar friend, and so sincere that the 
Searcher of hearts trusted in him ; and the other psalm 
describes the cause of Judas's personal reprobation thus : 
Let his days be few, and let another take his office, 
<fec, because that [though he once knew how to 
tread in the steps of his merciful Lord, who honoured 
him with a share in his familiar friendship] he 

REMEMBERED NOT to sllOlO mercy, hilt PERSECUTED 

the poor, that he might even slay the broken in heart. 
As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him : as he 
delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him : 
as he clothed himself with cursing like as with a 
garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, 
Psalm cix, 8, 16, &c. Hence it is evident that, if 
Judas was lost agreeably to the Scriptural prediction 
of his perdition; and if that very prophecy informs 
us that his days ivere few, because he remembered 
not to show mercy, fyc, we horribly wrong God when 
we suppose that this means because God wewr re- 
membered to show any mercy to Judas — because 
God was a graceless God to Iscariot thousands of 
years before the infant culprit drew his first breath. 
Brethren and fathers, as many as are yet concerned 
for our Creator's honour and our Saviour's reputation, 
resolutely bear your testimony with David and the 
Holy Ghost against this doctrine : so shall Zelotes 
blush to charge still the Father of mercies with the 
absolute reprobation of Judas, not only in opposition to 
all good nature, truth, and equity, but against as plain 
a declaration of God as any that can be found in all 
the Scriptures : Let his days be few, and let another 



62 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



take his office, &c, because he remembered not to 
shoio mercy, but persecuted the poor, that he might 
[betray innocent blood, and] even slay the broken in 
heart. 

To say that God stood in need of Judas's wickedness 
to deliver his Son to the Jews, is not less absurd than 
impious. God has no need of sinful men. Any boy 
that had once heard our Lord preach in the temple, 
and seen him go to the garden of Gethsemane, might 
have given as proper an information to the high priest, 
and been as proper a guide to the mob, as Judas ; espe- 
cially as Christ was not less determined to deliver him- 
self than the Jews were to apprehend him. With re- 
gard to the notion that Judas was a wicked man — an 
absolute unbeliever — a cursed hypocrite, when our Lord 
gave him a place in his familiar friendship and raised 
him to the dignity of an apostle, is both unscriptural 
and scandalous: 1. Unscriptural ; for the Scriptures 
inform us, that when the Lord immediately proceeds 
to an election of that nature, he looketh on the heart, 
1 Sam. xvi, 7. Again ; when eleven apostles prayed 
that God would overrule the lot which they were about 
to cast for a proper person to succeed Judas, they said, 
Thou, Lord, knoioest the hearts of all men ; 
show which of these two thou hast chosen, that 
he may take part of the ministry from which 
Judas, by transgression, fell, Acts i, 24. Now, 
as Judas fell by transgression, he was undoubt- 
edly raised by righteousness, unless Zelotes can make 
it appear that he rose the same way he fell ; and that, 
as he fell by a bribe, so he gave some of our Lord's 
friends a bribe to get himself nominated to one of the 
twelve apostolic bishoprics. But even then, how does 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



63 



this agree with our Lord knowing the heart and 
choosing accordingly? 

2. This notion is scandalous ; it sets Christ in the 
most contemptible light. How will he condemn, in the 
great day, men of power in the church, who, for by- 
ends, commit the care of souls to the most wicked men '/ 
How will he even find fault with them, if he set them 
the example himself, in passing by all the honest and 
good men in Judea, to go and set the apostolic mitre 
upon the head of a thief — of a wolf In sheep's cloth- 
ing ? In the name of wisdom I ask, Could Christ do 
this, and yet remain the good Shepherd ? How differ- 
ent is the account that St. Paul gives of his own elec- 
tion to the apostleship : " The glorious gospel of God 
was committed to my trust" says he ; " and I thank 
Christ, who hath enabled me, for that he count- 
ed me faithful, putting me into the ministry? 
1 Tim. i, 11, 12. Now, if we represent Christ as put- 
ting Paul into the ministry, because he counted him 
faithful ; and Judas, because he counted him un- 
faithful — a thief — a traitor — a cursed hypocrite ; do 
we not make Christ a Proteus? Are his ways equal? 
Has he not two weights? God, I grant, sets some- 
times a wicked king over a wicked people, but it is 
according to the ordinary course of human affairs, and 
in his anger ; to chastise a sinful nation with a royal 
rod. But what had the unformed Christian church 
done to deserve being scourged with the rod of apos- 
tolic wickedness? and what course of human affairs 
obliged our Lord to fix upon a wicked man in a new 
election to a new dignity — and, what is most striking, 
in an election to which he proceeded without the inter- 
position of saciyfree agent but himself? 



64 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



O Zelotes, mistake me not ; if I plead the cause of 
.Tudas's sincerity, when he left all to follow Christ, and 
when our Lord passed by thousands, immediately to 
choose him for his own familiar friend in ivhom he 
trusted — for a preacher of his gospel, and an apostle 
of his church — I do it not so much for Judas's sake 
as for the honour of Christ, and the comfort of his 
timorous, doubting followers. Alas ! if Christ could 
show distinguishing' favour and familiar friend- 
ship to a man on whom he had absolutely set his 
black seal of unconditional reprobation — to a man 
whom, from the beginning of the world, he had, with- 
out any provocation, marked for a goat, and for un- 
avoidable damnation : if he could converse, eat, drink, 
travel, lodge, and pray, for years, with a man to whom 
he bore from everlasting, and will bear to all eternity, 
a settled ill-will, an immortal hatred — where is sin- 
cerity ? where is the Lamb without blemish ? the 
Lamb of God, in whose mouth no guile was ever 
found? If Christ be such a sly damner of one of 
his twelve apostles as the doctrines of grace [so called] 
represent him to be, who can trust him ? What pro- 
fessor, what gospel minister, can assure himself that 
Christ has not chosen and called him for purposes as 
sinister as those for which it is supposed that Judas 
was chosen and called to be Christ's familiar friend? 
Nay, if Christ, barely on account of Adam's sin, left 
Judas in the lurch, and even betrayed him into a 
deeper hell by a mock call, may he not have done the 
same by Zelotes, by me, and by all the professors in 
the world ? O ye " doctrines of grace." if you are sweet 
as honey, in the mouth of Zelotes, as soon as I have 
eaten you, my belly is bitter; poison corrodes my 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



65 



vitals ; I must either part with you, my reason, or my 
peace. 

To conclude : If God has taken such particular care 
to clear himself from the charge of absolutely ap- 
pointing Judas to be a son of perdition : nay, if Christ 
himself asserts that the Father gave him Judas, as 
well as the other apostles : and if the Holy Ghost 
declares, by the mouth of David, that Judas was once 
Chris fs familiar friend, and, as such, honoured with 
his trust and confidence ; is it not evident that the doc- 
trine of free wrath, and of any man's (even Judas's) 
absolute unconditional reprobation, is as gross an im- 
position upon Bible Christians as it is a foul blot upon 
all the divine perfections ? 

I hope nobody will charge me with blasphemy for 
saying that our Lord called Judas with the same sin- 
cerity with which he called his other disciples. Heaven 
forbid that any Christian should suppose the Lamb of 
God called Iscariot to get him into the pit of perdition, 
as the fowler does an unhappy bird which he wants to 
get into a decoy ! Judas readily answered the call, and 
undoubtedly believed in Christ, as well as the rest of 
the apostles : for St. John says, " This beginning of 
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and mani- 
fested forth his glory, and his disciples [of whom 
Judas was one] believed in him." His faith was true, 
so far as it went ; for he was one of the little flock to 
whom it was God's good pleasure to give the king- 
dom, Luke xii, 32. Our Lord pronounced him blessed 
with the rest of his disciples, Matt, xiii, 16 ; and con- 
ditionally promised him one of the twelve apostolic 
crowns in his glory, Matt, xix, 28. 

If you say that " he was always a traitor and a 



66 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



hypocrite," you run into endless difficulties ; for, L You 
make Christ countenance, by his example, all bishops 
who knowingly ordain wicked men ; all patrons who give 
them livings j and all kings who prefer ungodly men 
in the church. 2. You suppose that Christ, who would 
not receive an occasional testimony from an evil spirit, 
not only sent a devil to preach and baptize in his name, 
but, at his return, encouraged him in his horrid dissi- 
mulation, by bidding him rejoice that his name was 
written in heaven. 3. You believe that the faithful 
and true Witness, in whose mouth no guile was ever 
found, gave this absurd, hypocritical charge to a goat, 
an arch hypocrite, a devil: "Behold, I send you forth 
as sheep in the midst of wolves ; but fear not, the 
hairs of your head are all numbered. A sparrow 
shall not fall to the ground without your Father, 
and ye are of more value than many sparrows. 
Do not premeditate, it shall be given you what you 
shall speak ; for it is not you that speak ; but the 
Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you? 

When our Lord spoke thus to Judas, he was a sheep, 
i. e., he heard Chrisfs voice and followed him. But, 
alas ! he was afterward taken by the bright shining of 
silver and gold, as David was by the striking beauty 
of Uriah's wife. And when he had admitted the base 
temptation, our Lord, with the honesty of a master and 
tenderness of a Saviour, said, u Have not I chosen you 
twelve, and one of you is a devil ?" He has let the 
tempter into his heart. This severe, though indirect 
reproof, reclaimed Judas for a time ; as a similar rebuke 
checked Peter on another occasion. Nor was it, pro- 
bably, till near the end of our Lord's ministry that he 
began to be unfaithful in the mammon of unright- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



67 



eousness : and even then, Christ kindly warned, with- 
out exposing him. 

Some, indeed, think our Lord was partial to Peter ; 
but I do not see it : for with equal love and faithfulness 
he warned all his disciples of their approaching fall, and 
mentioned the peculiar circumstances of Judas's and 
Peter's apostacy. " Ay, but he prayed for Peter, that 
his faith might not fail." And is this a proof that he 
never prayed for Judas? That he always excepted 
him when he prayed for his disciples ; and that he 
would have excepted him, if he had been alive when 
he interceded for all his murderers? "However, he 
looked at Peter, to cover him with penitential shame." 
Nay, he did more than this for Judas ; for he pointed 
at him, first indirectly, and then directly, to bring him 
to a sense of his crime. But, supposing our Lord had 
not at all endeavoured to stop him in his dreadful 
career, would this have been a proof of his reprobating 
partiality? Is it not said, that the Lord weigheth the 
spirits ? As such, did he not see that Judas offended 
of malicious wickedness and calm deliberation : and 
that Peter would offend merely through fear and sur- 
prise? Supposing, therefore, he had made a difference 
between tbem, would it be right to account for it by 
Calvinian election and reprobation, when the difference 
might so naturally be accounted for from the different 
state of their hearts and nature of their falls? Was it 
not highly agreeable to the notions we have of justice, 
and the declarations we read in the Scriptures, that our 
Lord should reprobate, or give up Judas, when he saw 
him immoveably fixed in his apostacy, and found that 
the last hour of his day of grace was now expired ? 

From all these circumstances, I hope I may conclude 



68 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



that Judas was not always a hypocrite ; that he may 
be properly ranked among apostates, that is, among 
those who truly fall from God, and therefore were once 
truly in him; and that our Lord spoke no untruth 
when he called the Spirit of God the Spirit of Judas's 
Father, without making any difference between him 
and the other disciples. 

If you ask how he fell? I reply, that overlooking 
an important part of our Lord's pastoral charge to him, 
He that endureth unto the end shall be saved, he 
dallied with worldly temptations till the evil spirit, 
which was gone out of him, entered in again, with 
seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and took 
possession of his heart, which was once swept from 
reigning sin, and garnished with the graces which 
adorn the Christian in his infant state. Thus, like 
Hymeneus, Philetus, Demas, and other apostates, by 
putting away a good conscience, concerning faith 
he made shipwreck, and evidenced the truth of God's 
declaration, " When the righteous turneth away from 
his righteousness, all his righteousness that he hath 
done shall not be mentioned : in his sin that he hath 
sinned he shall die" 

Objection. " But how could Judas be redeemed 
by Christ ? Was not his soul actually in hell, be- 
yond the reach of redemption, when Christ bled upon 
the cross V 

Answer. The fallacy of this argument will be suffi- 
ciently pointed out by retorting it thus : " How could 
Christ redeem David ? Was not David's soul actually 
in heaven, beyond the need of redemption, when Christ 
bled upon the ignominious tree ?" The truth is : From 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



69 



the foundation of the world Christ intentionally shed 
his blood, to procure a temporary salvation for all 
men, and an eternal salvation for them that obey 
him, and work out their salvation with fear and 
trembling. With respect to David and Judas in the 
day of their visitation, through Christ's intended 
sacrifice, they had both an accepted time; and while 
the one, by penitential faith, secured eternal salva- 
tion, the other, by obstinate unbelief, totally fell 
from initial salvation, and, by his own sin, went to 
his own, and not to Adam's place. 



CHAPTER VL 

FARTHER REMARKS ON THE JUSTIFICATION OF 
INFANTS. 

In the Third Check, to make my readers sensible 
that Calvinism has confusion and not Scripture for its 
foundation, I made a Scriptural distinction between the 
four degrees that constitute a saint's eternal justifica- 
tion ; and each of these degrees I called a justification, 
because I thought I could speak as the oracles of God, 
without exposing the truth of the gospel to the smiles 
of Christian wits. 

From Rom. v, 18, I proved the justification of in- 
fants: " As by the offence of Adam [says the apostle] 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even 
so, by the righteousness of Christ, the free gift came 
upon all men to justification of life? In support of 
this justification which comes upon all men in their 
infancy, I now advance the following arguments : 



TO 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



1. The Scripture tells us, that Christ in all things 
has the pre-eminence : but if Adam be a more public 
person, a more general representative of mankind, than 
Jesus Christ, it is plain that, in this grand respect, Adam 
hath the pre-eminence over Christ. Now, as this can- 
not be, as Christ is at least equal to Adam, it follows 
that, as Adam brought a general condemnation and 
a universal seed of death upon all infants, so Christ 
brings upon them a general justification and a uni- 
versal seed of life. 

2. I never yet saw a Calvinist who denied that 
Christ died for Adam. Now, if the Redeemer died for 
our first parent, he undoubtedly expiated the original 
sin, the first transgression of Adam. And if Adam's 
original sin was atoned for and forgiven to him, as the 
Calvinists, I think, generally grant, does it not follow 
that all infants are by nature children of wrath, yet, 
through the redemption of Christ, the}^ are in a state 
of favour or justification ? For how could God damn 
to all eternity any of Adam's children for a sin which 
Christ expiated ? — a sin which was forgiven almost six 
thousand years ago to Adam, who committed it in 
person ? • 

3. The force of this observation would strike our 
Calvinist brethren, if they considered that we were not 
less in Adam's loins w T hen God gave his Son to Adam 
in the grand original gospel promise than when Eve 
prevailed on him to eat the forbidden fruit. As all in 
him were included in the covenant of perfect obedience 
before the fall, so in him all were likewise interested in 
the covenant of grace and mercy after the fall : and 
we have full as much reason to believe that some of 
Adam's children never fell with him from a state of 



BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 



71 



probation, according to the old covenant, as to suppose 
that some of them never rose with him to a state of 
probation upon the terms of the new covenant, which 
stands upon better promises. 

Thus, if all received an unspeakable injury by being 
seminally in Adam when he fell, according to the first 
covenant, we all received also an unspeakable bless- 
ing by being in his loins when God spiritually raised 
him up, and placed him upon gospel ground. Nay, 
the blessing which we have in Christ is far superior to 
the curse which Adam entailed upon us. We stand 
our trial upon much more advantageous terms than 
Adam did in Paradise. For, according to the first cove- 
nant, judgment ioas by one offence to condemna- 
tion. One sin sunk the transgressor. But according 
to the free gift, or second covenant, provision is made 
in Christ for repenting of, and rising from, many 
offences unto justification, Rom. v, 16. 

4. Calvinists are now ashamed of consigning infants 
to the torments of hell ; they begin to extend their elec- 
tion to them all. Even the translator of Zanchius be- 
lieves that all children who die in their infancy are 
saved.* Now, sir, if all children, or any of them, are 
saved, they are unconditionally justified, according to 
our plan ; for they cannot he justified by faith, accord- 
ing to St. Paul's doctrine, Rom. v, 1 : as it is granted 
that those who are not capable of understanding are 
not capable of believing. Nor can they be justified by 
works, according to St. James's doctrine, chap, ii, 24 : 
for they are not accountable for their works who do not 
know good from evil, nor their right hand from their 

* If all are saved who die in infancy, and Oalvinian election be 
true, then none but the elect die in infancy J 



72 



EEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



left. Nor can they be justified by words, according to 
our Lord's doctrine, Matt, xii, 37: because they cannot 
yet form one articulate sound. It follows, then, that all 
infants must be damned, or justified without faith, 
words, or works, according to our first distinction. But 
as you believe they are saved, the first degree of an 
adult saint's justification is not less founded upon your 
own sentiments than upon reason and Scripture. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE DOCTRINE OF A BELIEVER'S JUSTIFICATION BY 
WORKS IS RECONCILED WITH THE DOCTRINE OF A 
SINNER'S JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE. 

Having answered the arguments which you have 
advanced against the doctrine of justification by works 
in the great day, permit me to consider what may far- 
ther be advanced against it. 

1. We cry to sinners, "By grace shall ye be saved, 
through faith, in the day of your conversion but to 
believers we say, " By grace shall ye be saved, through 
works, in the day of judgment. Turn, therefore, ye 
sinners : and, ye saints, work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling." 

When the apostle excludes works from having any 
hand in our justification or salvation, it is only when 
he speaks of the justification of sinners, whether we 
consider them as infants or adults. For if he excluded 
works from the justification of believers, either in the 
day of trial or in the day of judgment, he would grossly 
contradict himself : but now he is quite consistent. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



?3 



Mr. Wesley and I, through grace, gladly join him and 
Titus when they say, " Not by works >of righteousness 
which ive have done, [either in our infancy or hefore 
the day of our conversion,] but according- to his mercy 
he saved us, by the washing of 'regeneration ; that 
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs 
according to the hope of eternal life." 

Inquire we now, what are those works which St. 
Paul opposes to faith and free grace ; and I observe, 

1. That it is not absolutely every work, or else he 
would oppose faith to itself ; for believing is as much a 
work of the heart as walking to church is a work of 
the feet. 

2. Neither does the apostle oppose to faith works meet 
for repentance ; for he strongly recommended them 
himself, Acts xxvi, 20. Nor the works of upright Gen- 
tiles that fear God, and believe he is a rewarder of 
those who diligently seek him. If St. Paul represented 
these works as " dung and filthy rags," he would con- 
tradict the angel who said to Cornelius, " Thy prayers 
and alms [far from being rejected] are come up for 
a memorial before God" 

3. Much less did it ever come into the apostle's mind 
to oppose the work of faith and labour of love to faith 
and free grace ; for they are no more contrary to each 
other than the stalk and the ear are contrary to the 
root that bears them. Far from despising these works, 
see how honourably he speaks of them : " We give 
thanks always for you, remembering without ceasing 
your work of faith and labour of love in our Lord 
Jesus Christ. — God is not unrighteous to forget 
your work and labour that proceedeth of love. — Al- 
ways abounding in the work of the Lord. — Charge 

4 



74 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



the rich that they be rich in good works, laying tip 
for themselves a good foundation, that they may lay 
hold on eternal life? 

For want of attending to this, some have prepos- 
terously opposed the righteousness of faith to personal 
holiness. The latter they look upon as the righteous- 
ness which is of the law," and which the apostle ex- 
plodes, Phil, hi, 9. Thus they suppose that St. Paul 
formed the horrid wish of not being found clothed with 
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; 
not considering that the pardon of sins and true holi- 
ness, the two inseparable fruits of a living faith, consti- 
tute the righteousness which is through the faith of 
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. 
A righteousness this that far exceeds the outside right' 
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, with which 
the apostle had too long been satisfied, and which he 
so justly despised after his conversion. 

But the works w r hich St. Paul excludes are, 

1. The works of the ceremonial law- of Moses, gene- 
rally called the works of the law. On these works 
most Jewish converts laid a very great stress ; and some 
of them went so far into this error as to say to their 
Gentile brethren, "Except ye be circumcised after the 
manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved" Acts xv, 1. 
Hence the apostle wrote, verse 24, " Certain men, sub- 
verting your souls, have troubled you, saying, Ye must 
be circumcised, and keep the law." Hence, also, 
it is said, that when St. Paul shaved, and was at 
charges to purify himself in the temple, he walked 
orderly and kept the law, Acts xxi, 24. 

2. The apostle likewise opposed to faith those hypo- 
critical deeds of the moral law 7 , those external works 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



75 



of partial piety and ostentatious mercy by which proud 
Pharisees think to atone for their sins and purchase 
the kingdom of heaven. Such works of unbelief and 
spiritual pride cannot be too much decried. They do 
infinite mischief; they draw a veil over our apostacy; 
they breed self-complacence, generate self-conceit, and 
feed the opposition of Pharisees against the gospel. 
Hence their contempt of Christ, their enmity against 
his people, their ridiculing the atonement, despising 
others, and boasting of their own goodness. St. Paul 
was the more zealous in bearing his testimony against 
these fruits of self-righteousness, as he knew, by fatal 
experience, that they are the reverse of fruits meet for 
repentance, and of the righteousness which is of God 
by faith; and that they stood yet in the way of the 
Jews as much as they once did in his own. 

3. The apostle excludes all the works of impious 
moralists, who make no scruple of robbing God be- 
cause they are just to man ; all the works of Anti- 
nomian believers, who, like the Galatians, pray to the 
Lord, and devour their neighbours — or, like the Jews, 
fast to-day, and to-morrow strike with the fist of wicked- 
ness ; all the works which are not ultimately referred 
to the glory of God through Jesus Christ ; and all the 
works whose gracious rewardableness is not acknow- 
ledged to flow from the original and proper merit of the 
Redeemer. Those works the apostle justly discards, 
as contrary to the doctrine of grace, because they do 
not spring from the grace of God, but from the pride 
of man. He explodes them as opposite to the righteous- 
ness of faith, because they are not the works of humble 
faith, but of conceited unbelief ; the constant language 
of faith being, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, 



76 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and 
truth's sake? 

Let the judicious reader say, if by thus distinguish- 
ing between the justification of a sinner in the day of 
conversion and the justification of a saint in the great 
day • and by making a proper difference between the 
works of an humble believer, which the apostle justly 
extols, and the works of a proud Pharisee, which he 
justly decries; we do not perfectly reconcile him to 
himself, and sufficiently secure the honour of free 
grace ? 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RECONCILING CONCESSIONS RESPECTING ELECTION 
AND REPROBATION. 

Some readers will probably think that I have made 
the Calvinists too many concessions in the following 
pages : but I am persuaded that I have granted them 
nothing but what they have a Scriptural right to ; and 
God forbid that any Protestant should grant them less ! 

1. We grant that there is an election of distinguish- 
ing grace : but we show that this election is not Cal- 
vinian election ; thousands being partakers of the par- 
tial election of distinguishing grace who have no share 
in the impartial election of distributive justice; two 
distinct elections these, the confounding of which has 
laid the foundation of numberless errors. See Scrip- 
ture Scales, sec. xii. 

2. We grant the Calvinists that initial salvation is 
merely by a decree of divine grace through Jesus Christ. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



77 



But we assert that eternal salvation is both by a decree 
of divine grace and of distributive justice ; God reward- 
ing in Christ with an eternal life of glory those believers 
who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for 
glory, honour, and immortality. 

3. We grant that, although God, as a judge, is no 
respecter of persons, yet, as a benefactor, he is, and, 
of consequence, has a right to be, so far a respecter of 
persons as to bestow his favours in various degrees 
upon his creatures ; dealing them to some with a more 
sparing hand than he does to others. 

4. We grant that, although God punishes no one 
with eternal death for original and necessary sin, 
yet when sin, which might have been avoided by the 
help of creating or redeeming grace, has been volun- 
tarily and personally committed, God does punish 
(and, of consequence, has a right to punish) with eter- 
nal death some offenders more quickly than he does 
others; his showing, in such a case, mercy and justice 
upon gospel terms to whom he pleases, and as soon or 
late as he pleases, being undoubtedly the privilege of 
his sovereign goodness or justice — an awful privilege 
this, which is perfectly agreeable to the evangelical law 
of liberty, and with which the Calvinists have absurdly 
built their twin doctrines of finished salvation and 
finished damnation; not considering that such doc- 
trines stain the first gospel axiom, and totally destroy 
the second. 

The nature of this concession may be illustrated by 
an example. Two unconverted soldiers march up to 
the enemy. Both have avoidably transgressed the 
third commandment : the one by calling fifty times 
for his damnation, and the other five hundred times. 



78 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



Now, both have personally forfeited their initial salva- 
tion, and, continuing impenitent, God, as a righteous 
avenger of profaneness, may justly suffer the fifty-pence 
debtor to fall in the battle, and be instantly hurried to 
the damnation he had madly prayed for; and, as a 
long-suffering, merciful Creator, he may suffer the five 
hundred pence debtor — I mean the soldier who had 
sinned with a higher hand — to walk out of the field 
unhurt, and to be spared for years ; following him still 
with new offers of mercy, which the wretch is so happy 
as to embrace at last. Here is evidently a higher degree 
of the distinguishing grace which was manifested to- 
ward Manasseh, as it has also been to many other 
grievous sinners. But by this peculiar favour God 
violates no promise, and he acts in perfect consistency 
with himself: for when two people have personally 
forfeited their eternal salvation by one avoidable sin, 
of which they do not repent when they might, he does 
no injustice to the fifty-pence debtor when he calls him 
first to an account ; and he greatly magnifies his long- 
suffering when he continues to reprieve the five hun- 
dred pence debtor. 

By this sparing use of astonishing mercy, God 
strongly guards the riches of his grace. This inferior 
degree of forbearance makes thoughtful sinners stand 
in awe; as not knowing but the first sin they shall 
commit will actually fill up the measure of their ini- 
quities, and provoke the Almighty to swear in his 
righteous anger, that their day of grace is ended. To 
justify, therefore, God's conduct toward men in this 
respect, we need only observe, that if distinguishing 
grace did not make the difference which we grant to 
the Calvinists, perverse free-will would draw amazing 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 79 

strength from the unwearied patience of free grace. 
Suppose, for instance, that God had ensured to all 
men a day of grace of fourscore years, would not all 
sinners think it time enough to repent at the age of 
threescore years and nineteen ? Therefore, through the 
clouds of darkness which surround us, reason sees far 
into the propriety with which distinguishing grace dis- 
penses its superior blessings. But all the partiality 
which that grace ever displayed never amounted to one 
single grain of Calvinian reprobation : because God, as 
a righteous judge, lets every man have a fair trial for 
his life. Nor will all the sophisms in the world recon- 
cile the ideas which the Scriptures and rectified reason 
give us of divine justice, with a doctrine which repre- 
sents God as condemning to eternal torments a majority 
of men for the necessary, unavoidable consequences of 
Adam's sin : — a sin this, which, upon the scheme of 
absolute predestination of all events, was also made 
unavoidable and necessary. 

5. We grant, that although Christ died to purchase 
a day of [initial] salvation for all men, yet he never 
died to purchase eternal salvation for any adults 
but them that believe, obey, and are faithful unto 
death; and that, of consequence, the redemption of 
mankind by Jesus Christ is general and unconditional 
with respect to initial salvation, but particular and 
conditional with respect to eternal salvation ; except 
in the case of infants who die before actual sin. These, 
and only these, are blessed with unconditional election 
and finished salvation, in the Calvinistic sense of these 
phrases : these are irresistibly saved, and eternally ad- 
mitted into one of the many mansions of our heavenly 
Father's house. Free grace, to the honour of our Lord's 



80 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



meritorious infancy, absolutely saves them, without any 
concurrence of their free will. Nor is it surprising that 
God should do it unavoidably ; for as they never were 
personally capable of working with free grace, i. e., 
of working out their salvation, so they never were in 
a capacity of working against free grace, or of begin- 
ning to work their damnation. Having never com- 
mitted an act of sin, God can, consistently with the 
gospel, save them eternally without any act of repent- 
ance. In a word, infants having no unrighteousness 
but that of the first Adam, reason, as well as Scripture, 
dictates that they need no righteousness but that of 
the second Adam. 

6. From the preceding concession it follows, that 
obedient, persevering believers are God's elect, in the 
particular and full sense of the word ; being elected to 
the reward of eternal life in glory: — a reward this, 
from which they who die in a state of apostacy or im- 
penitency have cut themselves off by not making their 
calling and election sure. 

7. We grant that none of these peculiar elect shall 
ever perish, though they would have perished had they 
not been faithful unto death : and we allow that, with 
respect to God's foreknoialedge and omniscience, their 
number is certain. But we steadily assert that, with 
regard to the doctrines of general redemption, of God's 
covenanted mercy, of man's free agency, of divine 
justice, and of a day in which the Lord shall judge 
the world in righteousness : we steadily assert, I say, 
with regard to these doctrines, the number of the pecu- 
liar elect might be greater or less, without the least 
exertion of forcible grace or of forcible wrath. For 
it might be greater, if more wicked and slothful 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



81 



servants improved instead of burying their talents: 
and it might be less, if more good and faithful ser- 
vants grew faint in their minds, and drew back to 
perdition, before they had fought their good fight 
out, kept the faith, and finished their course. 

8. And lastly, we grant that, according to the elec- 
tion of distinguishing grace, which is the basis of the 
various dispensations of divine grace toward the children 
of men, Christ died to purchase more privileges for the 
Christian church than for the Jews, more for the 
Jews than for the Gentiles : for it is indubitable that 
God, as a sovereign Benefactor, may, without a 
shadow of injustice, dispense his favours, spiritual 
and temporal, as he pleases: it being enough for 
the display of his goodness, and for the exciting of 
our gratitude, 1. That the least of his heathen servants 
had received a talent, with means, capacities, and op- 
portunities of improving it, even to everlasting happi- 
ness ; 2. That God never desires to reap a hundred 
measures of spiritual wheat, where he only sows a 
handful of spiritual barley ; 3. That the least degree 
of his improvable goodness is a seed which nothing 
but our avoidable unfaithfulness hinders from bringing 
forth fruit to eternal life and glory. 

By making these guarded concessions, I conceive, 
we rectify the mistakes of Arminius; we secure the 
doctrine of grace in all its branches, while Calvinism 
secures only irresistible grace, by which infants and 
complete idiots are eternally saved ; we turn the edge 
and break the point of all the arguments by which the 
Calvinian doctrines of grace are defended ; and tear in 
pieces the cloak with which the Antinomians cover 
their dangerous error. 

4* 



82 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



Had Arminians, and all the ancient and modern 
Semipelagians, granted to their opponents what we 
grant to ours, Calvinism would never have risen to its 
tremendous height. If you try to stop a great river, 
refusing it liberty to flow in the deep channel which 
nature has assigned it, you only make it foam, rise, 
rage, overflow its banks, and carry devastation far and 
near. The only way to make judicious Calvinists the 
impartial remuneration election, and the general re- 
demption, which the gospel displays, is to allow them, 
with a good grace, the partial gratuitous election, and 
the particular, which the Scriptures strongly maintain 
also. See the Scales, sec. xi, xii, xiii. For my part, I 
glory in going as near the Calvinists as I safely can. 
Zelotes is my brother as well as Honestus ; and, so long as 
I do not lose firm footing upon Scripture ground, I gladly 
stretch my right hand to him, and my left hand to his 
antagonist ; endeavouring to help them both out of the 
opposite ditches, which bound the narrow way where 
truth takes a solitary walk. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



83 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE FICTITIOUS AND THE GENUINE CREED. 

THE FICTITIOUS CREED, 

BEING- A CREED FOR ARMINIANS. 

Composed by Richard Hill, Esq., and published at 
the end of his " Three Letters written to the Rev. 
J. Fletcher, vicar of Madeley." 

ARTICLE I. 

" I believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole 
human race, and that he had no more love toward 
those who now are, or hereafter shall be, in glory, than 
for those who now are, or hereafter shall be, lifting up 
their eyes in torments ; and that the one are no more 
indebted to his grace than the other." 

THE GENUINE CREED, 

Being an anti-Calvinian confession of faith, for those 
who believe that " Christ tasted death for every 
man and that some men, by " denying the Lord 
that bought them, bring upon themselves swift de- 
struction." 

ARTICLE I. 

We believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole 
human race, with an intention, first, to procure abso- 
lutely and unconditionally a temporary redemption, or 
an initial salvation for all men universally: and, 



84 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



secondly, to procure a particular redemption, or an 
eternal salvation conditionally for all men, but abso- 
lutely for all that die in their infancy, and for all the 
adult who obey him, and are " faithful unto death." 

We believe that, in consequence of the general and 
temporary redemption procured by Christ for all man- 
kind, every man is unconditionally blessed with a day 
of grace, which the Scripture calls " the accepted time," 
and " the day of salvation." During this day, (under 
various dispensations of grace, and by virtue of various 
covenants made through Christ, David, Moses, Abra- 
ham, Noah, or Adam,) God, for Christ's sake, affords 
all men proper means, abilities, and opportunities to 
" work out their own salvation," or to make " their 
calling and conditional election" to the eternal bless- 
ings of their respective dispensations "sure;" and as 
many do it, by keeping " the free gift which is come" 
unto all men, or by recovering it through faithful obe- 
dience to reconverting grace: or, in other terms, as 
many as know, and perseveringly improve " the day 
of their visitation," are, in consequeuce of Christ's par- 
ticular redemption, entitled to an eternal redemption or 
salvation : that is, they are eternally redeemed from 
hell, and eternally saved into different degrees of 
heavenly glory, according to the different degrees of 
their faithfulness, and the various dispensations which 
they are under. While they that bury their talent, and 
" know not [i. e., squander away] the day of their visita- 
tion," forfeit their initial salvation, and secure to them- 
selves God's judicial reprobation, together with all its 
terrible consequences. 

We believe, moreover, that although Christ " tasted 
death for every man," yet, according to his covenants 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



85 



of peculiarity or distinguishing grace, he formerly- 
showed more love to the Jews than to the Gentiles, 
and now shows more favour to the Christians than to 
the Jews, and to some Christians than to others ; be- 
stowing more spiritual blessings upon the Protestants 
than upon the Papists; more temporal mercies upon 
the English than upon the Greenlanders, &c. We 
farther believe that this special favour is not only na- 
tional, but also, in some cases, personal : thus it seems 
that God showed more of it to Jacob than to Esau ; to 
Esau than to Shechem ; to David and Solomon than 
to Jonathan and Mephibosheth ; to St. Paul than to 
Apollos ; and to Peter, James, and John, than to Judas, 
Bartholomew, and Matthias. We likewise believe that 
God {according to his prescience) has a regard for 
the souls who (he foresees) will finally yield to his 
grace, and this regard he has not for the souls who 
(he foresees) will finally harden themselves against 
his goodness : thus, with respect to divine foreknow- 
ledge, we grant that Christ had a respect for fallen 
Peter which he had not for fallen Judas: for, when 
they were both lying in the guilt of their crimes, he 
could not but prefer him who had not yet sinned out 
his day of grace to him who had : him who had done 
the Spirit of grace a partial, temporary despite, to him 
who had done that Spirit a total and final despite. 
And, in a word, him who would repent to him who 
absolutely would not. However, this peculiar regard 
for some men, this lengthening or shortening a sinner's 
day of grace arbitrarily, and this bestowing more talents, 
i. e., more temporal and spiritual blessings upon one 
man than upon another, according to the sovereign 
prerogative which God claims in his covenants of pecu- 



96 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



liarity ; this peculiar regard for some men, I say, never 
amounts to a grain of partiality in judgment: much 
less to a rape committed by overbearing grace, or in- 
frustable wrath, upon the moral agency of two men, 
(suppose Peter and Judas,) to bring about, in an un- 
avoidable manner, the final perseverance of the one, 
and the final apostacy of the other. For had the 
covetous traitor humbly repented when he could have 
done it, he yet would have gone to heaven ; and had 
the lying, perjured apostle put off his repentance as 
obstinately as Judas did, he would have gone to the 
place of impenitent apostates : for God having " put 
life and death before" the sons of-men ; and having 
appointed eternal rewards for those who " finally choose 
life" in the rectitude of their conduct, and eternal pu- 
nishment for those who " finally choose death in the 
error of their ways," he can no more finally turn the 
scale of their will than he can deny himself, and turn 
the solemnity of the great day into the pageantry of a 
Pharisaic masquerade. 

The end of the first article of Mr. Hill's Fictitious 
Creed is not less contrary to all our principles than the 
middle part. For, according to all our doctrines of 
grace, persons who are in glory like Peter are infinitely 
more indebted to Christ's grace than persons who lift 
up their eyes in torments like Judas. This will appear, 
if we consider the case of those two apostles. Although 
they were both equally indebted to Christ for his re- 
deeming love, which put them in a state of initial sal- 
vation ; and for his distinguishing favour, which raised 
them to apostolic honours ; yet upon our scheme Peter 
is infinitely more beholden to free grace than Judas ; 
and I prove it thus : Christ, according to his remune- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



87 



rative election, which draws after it a particular redemp- 
tion and eternal salvation ; — Christ, I say, according to 
that remunerative election, has chosen Peter to the 
reward of a heavenly throne and a crown of glory. 
Now this election, in which Judas has no interest, 
springs from God's free grace, as well as from volun- 
tary perseverance in the free obedience of faith. It 
was of free grace that God designed to give to all peni- 
tent, persevering believers, and of consequence to Peter, 
a crown of glory in his heavenly kingdom : for he 
might have given them only the conveniences of life 
in a cottage on earth : he might have dropped them 
into their original nothingness, after having blessed 
them with one single smile of his approbation : nay, 
he might have demanded their utmost obedience, with- 
out promising them the least reward. Therefore Peter 
and all the saints in glory are indebted to Christ, not 
only for their rewards of additional grace on earth, but 
also for all their eternal salvation, and for all the 
heavenly blessings which flow from their particular 
redemption. Infinitely gracious rewards these, which 
God does not bestow upon Judas, nor upon any of those 
who die impenitent ! Infinitely glorious rewards ! 
which nothing but God's free grace in Christ could 
move his distributive justice to bestow upon persevering 
believers. Hence it is evident that Mr. Hill has tried 
to make our fundamental doctrine of general redemp- 
tion appear ridiculous, by absurdly clogging it with an 
odious consequence, which has no more to do with that 
comfortable doctrine than we have to do with Mr. Hill's 
uncomfortable tenet of absolute reprobation. 



88 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE II. 

" I believe that divine grace is indiscriminately given 
to all men ; and that God, foreseeing that by far the 
greater part of the world will reject his grace, doth 
nevertheless bestow it upon them, in order to heighten 
their torments, and to increase their damnation in hell." 

THE GENUINE CREEDr- 

ARTICLE II. 

We do not believe that divine grace is indiscrimi- 
nately given to all men. For although we assert that 
God gives to all at least one talent of true grace to 
profit with ; yet we acknowledge that he makes as real 
a difference between man and man, as between an 
angel and an archangel, giving to some men one 
talent, to others two talents, and to others Jive, according 
to the election of distinguishing grace, maintained in 
the Scripture Scales, sec. xii. But the least talent of 
grace is saving, if free will do not bury it to the last. 

And we believe that although God foresaw that in 
some unhappy period of the world's duration the greater 
part of adults would reject his grace, he nevertheless 
bestows it in different measures upon all ; but not (as 
Mr. Hill says) " in order to heighten the torments, and 
increase the damnation of any in hell." This is a 
horrid conceit, which we return to those who insinuate 
that God'gives common grace (that is, we apprehend, 
unsaving, graceless grace) to absolute reprobates, 
i. e., to men for whom (upon Mr. Hill's scheme of ab- 
solute reprobation) there never was in God the least 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



89 



degree of mercy and saving goodness. This shocking 
consequence, fixed upon us by Mr. Hill, is the genuine 
offspring of Calvinistic non-election, which supposes 
that God sends the gospel to myriads of men from 
whom he absolutely keeps the power of believing it ; 
tantalizing them with offers of free grace here, that he 
may, without possibility of escape, sink them here- 
after to the deepest hell, — the hell of the Capernaites. 

According to the gospel, the reprobation that draws 
eternal damnation after it springs from our own per- 
sonal free will doing a final despite to free grace, and 
not from God's eternal free wrath. And if Mr. Hill 
ask " why God gives a manifestation of the Spirit of 
grace to men who (he foresees) will do it a final despite, 
as well as to those who through that grace will work 
out their own salvation ;" we reply : — 

1. For the same reason which made him give celes- 
tial grace to the angels who became devils by squander- 
ing it away ; paradisiacal grace to our first parents ; 
expostulating, Gentile grace to Cain ; Jewish, royal 
grace to Saul ; and Christian, apostolic grace to Judas. 
If Mr. Hill says he does not understand what that 
reason is ; we answer : By the same reason which in- 
duced the master who corrected Mr. Hill for making a 
bad exercise at Westminster school to give his pupil 
pen, paper, ink, and proper instruction, before he could 
reasonably call Mr. Hill to an account for his exercise. 
And by the same reason which would make all Shrop- 
shire cry out against Mr. Hill as against a tyrannical 
master, suppose he horsewhipped his coachman and 
postilion for not driving him, if he had taken away 
from them boots, whips, spurs, harness, coach, and 
horses; and if he had contrived himself the fall of 



90 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



their apartment, that all their bones might be put out 
of joint when the floor gave way under them. 

2. If Mr. Hill is not satisfied with these illustrations, 
we will give him some direct answers. God gives a 
manifestation of his grace to those who make their 
reprobation sure by finally resisting his gracious Spirit ; 
First, Because he will show himself as he is, " gracious 
and merciful," " true and longsufTering toward all," so 
long as " the day of their visitation" lasts. Thus he 
bestows a talent upon all his slothful servants who bury 
it to the last, because he will display his equity and 
goodness, although they will display their wickedness 
and sloth. Secondly. Because he is determined that if 
those servants will destroy themselves, their blood shall 
be upon their own heads, according to the well-known 
scripture: " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. I 
would, and ye would not." Thirdly, Because God will 
"judge the world in righteousness," and display his 
distributive justice in rendering to all according to " their 
works ;" deservedly clothing his finally unfaithful ser- 
vants with shame, and making the faithful walk with 
him in white, " because they are [evangehcally] w T orthy." 
And, to sum up all in one, — because the two gospel 
axioms are firm as the pillars of heaven and hell ; and 
God will display their truth before men and angels, and 
especially before Pharisees and Antinomians. Now, 
according to the first axiom, there is a Saviour, a 
measure of saving grace, and a day of initial salvation 
for all. And, according to the second axiom, there is 
free will in all, and a day of judgment, with a final 
salvation or damnation for all, according to their good 
or bad works, that is, according to their free agency ; 
the good works of the righteous being the product of 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



91 



their free, avoidable co-operation with God's grace ; and 
the bad works of the wicked springing' from their free, 
avoidable rebellion against that grace. 

Hence it appears that the second article of the Ficti- 
tious Creed contains, indeed, a " shocking, not to say 
blasphemous" consequence, but that this consequence is 
nothing but a sprig of Mr. Hill's supposed " orthodoxy," 
absurdly grafted upon the supposed "heresy" which 
St. John and St. Paul maintain in these words : " He 
[Christ] was the true light which lighteth every man 
that cometh into the world. The grace of God which 
bringeth salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching 
[not forcing] us to deny ungodliness, &c, and to live 
soberly," &c, if we are obedient to its teachings. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE III. 

" I believe it depends wholly on the will of the 
creature whether he shall or shall not receive any 
benefit from divine grace." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE III. 

We believe that the benefits of a temporary redemp- 
tion, of a day of salvation, and of the " free gift" which 
" came upon all men" to the justification mentioned 
Rom. v, 18 : we believe, I say, these benefits, far from 
" depending wholly on the will of the creature," as to 
the receiving of them, depend no more upon us than 
our sight and the light of the sun. All those blessings 
are at first as gratuitously and irresistibly bestowed upon 
us, for Christ's sake, in our present manner of existencej 



92 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



as the divine image and favour were at first bestowed 
upon our first parents in paradise, with this only differ- 
ence ; before the fall their paradisiacal grace came im- 
mediately from God our Creator; whereas, since the 
fall, our penitential grace comes immediately and irre- 
sistibly from God our Redeemer ; — I say irresistibly, 
because God does not leave to our option whether we 
shall receive a talent of redeeming grace or not, any 
more than he left it to Adam's choice whether Adam 
should receive five talents of creative grace or not ; 
although afterward he gives us leave to bury or im- 
prove our talent of redeeming grace, as he gave leave 
to Adam to bury or improve his five talents of creative 
grace. Our doctrine of the general redemption and 
free agency of mankind stands, therefore, upon the 
same Scriptural and rational ground which bears up 
Mr. Hill's system of man's creation and moral agency 
in paradise ; it being impossible to make any objection 
against the personal loss of redeeming grace in Judas, 
that may not be retorted against the personal loss of 
creative grace in Adam or Satan. 

But, with respect to all the temporal and eternal 
benefits which God has promised by way of reward to 
his every " good and faithful servant," we believe that 
they depend upon the concurrence of two causes ; the 
first of which is the free grace of God in Jesus Christ ; 
and the second, the faithfulness of our assisted and 
rectified free will, which faithfulness is graciously 
crowned by God's remunerative justice and evangelical 
veracity. And, instead of blushing at this doctrine, as 
if it were " shocking," we glory in it, as being perfectly 
rational, strictly Scriptural, and equally distant from the 
two rocks against which Calvinian orthodoxy is dashed 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



93 



in pieces : I mean, the twin doctrines of wanton free 
grace and eternal free wrath, according to which God, 
without any respect to the faith or unbelief, to the good 
or bad works of free agents, absolutely ordained for 
some of them the robe of Christ's imputed righteous- 
ness, and the unavoidable reward of eternal life by the 
mean of unavoidable faith ; while he absolutely ap- 
pointed for all the rest the robe of Adam's imputed 
unrighteousness, and the unavoidable punishment of 
eternal death by means of necessary, unavoidable un- 
belief. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE IV. 

" Though the Scripture tells me that the carnal 
mind is enmity against God, yet I believe that there is 
something in the heart of every natural man that can 
nourish and cherish the grace of God; and that the 
sole reason why this grace is effectual in some and not 
in others is entirely owing to themselves, and to their 
own faithfulness or unfaithfulness, and not to the dis- 
tinguishing love and favour of God." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Though the Scriptures tell us " that the carnal mind 
is enmity against God," and that "the flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit," yet we believe that, from the time 
God initially raised mankind from their fall, and pro- 
mised them the celestial bruiser of the serpent's head, 
there is a gracious free agency in the heart of every 
man who has not yet sinned away his day of salva- 



94 



BEATJTIES OF FLETCHER. 



tion : and that, by means of this gracious free agency, 
all men, during the " accepted time," can concur with, 
and work under the grace of God, according to the 
dispensation they belong to. Again : we believe that 
no child of Adam is a "natural man" in the Calvinian 
sense of the word, [i. e., absolutely destitute of all saving 
grace,] except he who has actually sinned away his day 
of grace. And when we consider a man as absolutely 
graceless, or as " a child of wrath" in the highest sense 
of the word, we consider him in fallen Adam, before 
God began to raise mankind by the promise of the 
woman's seed : or we must consider that man in his 
own person after he has done final despite to the Spirit 
of that grace which has more or less clearly appeared 
to all men under various dispensations. 

Mr. Hill greatly mistakes if he thinks that, according 
to our doctrine, God's grace is " effectual in some, and 
not in others ;" for we believe that it is effectual in all, 
though in a different manner. It has its first and 
most desirable effect on them that " cherish it" through 
the above-mentioned gracious free agency. And it has 
its second and less desirable effect on those who finally 
reject the gracious counsel of God toward them: for it 
reproves their sins ; it galls their consciences ; it renders 
them inexcusable ; it vindicates God's mercy ; it clears 
his justice; it shows that the Judge of all the earth 
does no wrong ; and it begins in this world the just 
punishment which righteous vengeance will complete 
in the next. 

The grace of God, therefore, like the gospel that 
testifies of it, is a two-edged sword : it is a savour of 
life to those who cherish it, and a savour of death to 
those who resist it. That some cherish it, by its assist- 



BEAUTIES 0E FLETCHER, 



ance work righteousness to the last, and then receive 
the reward of the inheritance, is not " entirely owing 
to themselves and to their own faithfulness," as the 
Fictitious Creed asserts : nor is it " entirely owing to 
the love and favour of God." This happy event has 
two causes : the first is free grace, by the assistance 
of which the faith and good works of the righteous are 
begun, continued, and ended : the second is free will 
humbly working with free grace, as appears by the 
numerous scriptures balanced in the Scripture Scales. 
And that some, on the other hand, resist the grace of 
Godj and are personally given up to a reprobate mind 
that they might be damned, is not at all owing to God's 
free wrath, as the scheme of Mr. Hill supposes : nor is 
it entirely owing to the unfaithfulness and obstinacy of 
impenitent sinners. This unhappy event has also two 
causes : the first is man's free will finally refusing to 
concur with free grace, in working out his own salva- 
tion; and the second is just wrath, revenging the 
despite done to God's free grace by such a final 
refusal. 

With respect to "the distinguishing love and favour" 
of God our Judge, and his distinguished hatred and ill 
will, (on which our eternal rewards and punishments 
unavoidably turn, according to Mr. Hill's twin doctrines 
of finished salvation and finished damnation,) we dare 
not admit them into our holy religion. We give to 
"distinguishing favour" an important place in our creed, 
as appears from the first article of this ; but that favour 
has nothing to do with God's judicial distribution of 
rewards or punishments, i. e., with God's appointing of 
us to eternal life or to eternal death. We believe that 
it is a most daring attempt of the Antinomians to place 



96 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



distinguishing favour and distinguishing displeasure 
upon the judicial throne of God, and in the judgment 
seat of Christ ; no decrees proceeding from thence but 
such as are dictated by impartial justice putting Christ's 
evangelical law in execution, and strictly judging (i. e., 
justifying or condemning, rewarding or punishing) 
moral agents, according to their works. We should 
think ourselves guilty of propagating " a shocking, not 
to say blasphemous" doctrine, if we insinuated, that 
" distinguishing favour," and not unbribed justice, dic- 
tates God's sentence; God himself having enacted, 
"Cursed be he that perverteth judgment, &c, and all 
the people shall say, Amen," Deut. xxvii, 19. Nor 
need I tell Mr. Hill this, who has hinted that God is 
such a partial Judge; — yea, that he carries partiality to 
such a height as to say to a man who actually denies 
a married woman, and treacherously plots the murder 
of her injured husband, "Thou art all fair, my love, my 
undented, there is no spot in thee : thou art a man after 
my own heart." If Mr. Hill has forgotten this anec- 
dote, I refer him to the Five Letters, the sale of which 
he does not scruple to advertise again in his Three 
Letters, saying : " I now think it the way of duty to 
permit — the Five Letters to Mr. Fletcher, &c., to be 
again sold, in order that both friends and enemies may, 
if possible, be convinced that I never retracted my 
sentiments." Strange confidence of boasting ! O 
mores ! What have morality and godliness done to 
Mr. Hill, that he will put them to a perpetual blush, 
lest his Venus (for she no longer deserves the name of 
Diana) should redden one moment ? 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



97 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE V. 

" I believe that God sincerely wishes for the salvation 
of many who never will be saved ; consequently, that 
it is entirely owing to want of ability in God, that what 
he so earnestly willeth is not accomplished." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE V. 

We believe that God's attributes perfectly harmonize. 
Accordingly his goodness and- mercy incline him to 
"wish for the salvation of" all men, upon gracious 
terms, laid down by his wisdom and veracity. As a 
proof of the sincerity of his wish, he swears by him- 
self, that his antecedent will or decree is not " that sin- 
ners should die ; but that," by the help of his free grace 
and the submission of their free will, " they should turn 
and live." He does more still : he grants to all men a 
day of initial salvation, and "all that day long he 
stretches forth his hands" to them. He reproves them 
for their sins : he calls upon them in various ways to 
repent; and gives them power to do it according to one 
or another dispensation of his grace ; requiring little of 
those to whom he gives little, and much of those to 
whom much is given. But it is his subsequent decree, 
dictated chiefly by his holiness, justice, and sove- 
reignty, that, if free agents will none of his reproofs, 
and finally disregard the offers of his grace, " his Spirit 
shall not always strive with them." A day of calamity 
shall follow the day of their neglected salvation ; and 
justice shall be glorified in their righteous destruction. 
This is the sad alternative which God has set before 

5 



98 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



them, if, in opposition to his antecedent will, they 
(through their free agency) finally choose death, in 
finally choosing the way that leads to it. 

This part of our doctrine may be summed up in 
three propositions. (1.) God's mercy absolutely wills 
the initial salvation of all men by Jesus Christ. (2.) 
God's goodness, holiness, and faithfulness, absolutely 
will the eternal salvation of all those who, by the con- 
currence of their assisted, unnecessitated free will, with 
his redeeming grace, are found penitent, obedient be- 
lievers, at the end of their day of initial salvation. And, 
(3.) God's justice, sovereignty, and veracity, absolutely 
will the destruction of all that are found impenitent at 
the close of the day of their gracious visitation, or initial 
salvation. To see the truth of these three propositions, 
we need only consider them in the light of these two 
gospel axioms, and compare them with these declara- 
tions of Moses and Jesus Christ : " I set life and death 
before you; [free agents, who enjoy a day of initial sal- 
vation ;] choose life," (I offer it you first: "choose 
life," I say,) " that you may live eternally. But if you 
choose death in the error of your ways," your rejected 
Saviour will complain, "How often would I have gath- 
ered you as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, 
but ye would net : and now the things that made for 
your peace are hid from your eyes :" that is, you are 
given up to judicial blindness, and to all its fearful con- 
sequences. 

Hence it is evident, that the damnation of those who 
obstinately live and die in their sins, and whom God 
was willing to save as free agents upon gospel terms, 
argues no " want of ability in him" to save them eter- 
nally, if he would give up the day of judgment, and 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



exert his omnipotence in opposition to his wisdom, jus- 
tice, holiness, and veracity ; or if he would destroy the 
most wonderful of all his works, which is the free will 
of moral agents. We never doubted his ability to un- 
man man, and eternally to save all mankind, if he 
would absolutely do it ; it being evident that the Al- 
mighty can overpower all his creatures if he should be 
bent upon it, and drive them from sin to necessitated 
holiness, and from hell to heaven, far more easily than 
a shepherd can drive his frighted sheep from the market 
to the slaughter house. Therefore, the supposition 
that, upon our principles, " God wants ability to save" 
whom he absolutely will save, is entirely groundless ; 
every man being actually saved so far as God* abso- 
lutely wills: for, first, God absolutely wills that all 
men should be unconditionally saved with initial sal- 
vation ; and thus all men are unconditionally saved : 
and, secondly, he absolutely wills that all men, who 
are obedient and faithful unto death, should absolutely 
be saved with an eternal salvation : and thus all men 

* The reader is desired to take particular notice of this observa- 
tion, because it cuts up by the root Bradwarden's famous argument. 
"If you allow, (says he,) (1.) That God is able to do a thing, and, 
(2.) That he is [absolutely] willing to do a thing: then, (3.) I af- 
firm, that the thing will not, cannot go unaccomplished : otherwise 
God must either lose his power, or change his mind. If the [abso- 
lute] will of God could be frustrated and vanquished, its defeat would 
arise from the created wills either of angels or of men. But could 
any created will whatever, &c, counteract and baffle the will of 
God, the will of the creature must be superior either in strength or 
in wisdom to the will of the Creator; which can by no means be 
allowed." We fully grant to Mr. Toplady that the argument is 
" extremely conclusive," provided the two words " absolutely" and 
" absolute" be taken into it ; and therefore, we maintain, as well as 
he, that man is actually saved, so far as God absolutely wills. 



100 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



who are obedient and faithful unto death are actually 
saved. They shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of Christ's protecting hand. But what 
has this Scripture doctrine to do with Calvinism? 
With the necessary, eternal, finished salvation of all 
the disobedient sheep, who turn goats, foxes, lions, and 
serpents? Who, far from remembering Lot's wife, 
slily rob their neighbours of their ewe lambs, — their 
heart's blood, — their reputation ? 

To conclude : the most that Mr. Hill can justly say 
against our principles, is : (1.) That, according to the 
gospel which we preach, man is a free agent, and God 
is wise, holy, true, and just ; as well as good, loving, 
patient, and merciful : and, (2.) That one half of 
these attributes do not permit him to necessitate free 
agents ; that is, to make them absolutely do or for- 
bear those actions by which they are to stand or fall 
in judgment. And let men of reason and religion 
say, if this doctrine be not more rational and Scrip- 
tural than the Calvinian doctrine of finished salva- 
tion, and of its inseparable counterpart, finished dam- 
nation. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE VI. 

" I believe that the Redeemer not only shed his pre- 
cious blood, but prayed for the salvation of many souls 
who are now in hell ; consequently, that his blood was 
shed in vain, and his prayer rejected of his Father, and 
that therefore he told a great untruth when he said, I 
know that thou hearest me always." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



101 



THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE VI. 

We believe that the Redeemer did not shed his pre- 
cious blood or pray absolutely in vain for any man: 
seeing he obtained for all men, in their season, a day 
of grace and initial salvation, with a thousand spirit- 
ual and temporal blessings. Nor were his prayers for 
the eternal salvation of those who die impenitent re- 
jected by his Father ; for Christ never prayed that they 
should be eternally saved in impenitency. Before Mr. 
Hill can reasonably charge us with holding doctrines 
which imply that Christ told a gross untruth when he 
said, " I know that thou hearest me always," he must 
prove that Christ ever asked the eternal salvation of 
some men, whether they repented or not ; or that he 
ever desired his Father to force to the last repentance, 
faith, and obedience, upon any man. If Mr. Hill can- 
not prove this, how can he make it appear that, accord- 
ing to our doctrines of grace, one of our Lord's prayers 
was ever rejected? We grant that Christ asked the 
forgiveness of his murderers, and of those who made 
sport with his sufferings ; but he asked it upon gospel 
terms, that is, conditionally. Nor was his prayer inef- 
fectual; for it obtained for them time to repent, and 
uncommon helps so to do, with a peculiar readiness in 
God to pardon them upon their application for pardon : 
and if, after all, through the power of their free agency, 
they despised the pardon offered them in the gospel, 
and repented not, they shall deservedly perish accord- 
ing to Christ's own declaration. He has acted toward 
them the part of a gracious Saviour : he never engaged 
himself to act that of a tyrant : I mean, he never sent 



102 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



either his good Spirit, or the evil spirit of Satan, to bind 
the wills of men with adamantine chains of necessi- 
tated righteousness, or of necessitated iniquity, that he 
might cast some into Abraham's bosom, and others into 
hell, as Nebuchadnezzar sent the strongest men in his 
army to bind Daniel's companions, and to cast them 
into the burning fiery furnace. 

Once more : we believe that, with respect to the re- 
ward of the inheritance, and the doctrine of eternal sal- 
vation, Christ's atonement and intercession are like his 
gospel. Now his gospel is guarded by what one of 
Mr. Hill's seconds queerly calls " the valiant Sergeant 
if," that is, the conditionality of the promises and 
threatenings which relate to eternal salvation and eter- 
nal damnation ; and this conditionality is the rampart 
of the old gospel, and the demolition of the new ; 
strongly guarding the ancient doctrines of free grace, 
free will, and just wrath, against the novel doctrines of 
overbearing grace, bound will, and free wrath. 

I should not do justice to our cause if I dismissed 
this article without retorting Mr. Hill's objection. I 
have shown how unreasonably we are accused of hold- 
ing doctrines, which, by "unavoidable" consequence, 
represent Christ as " telling a gross untruth :" and now 
we desire Mr. Hill, or his seconds, to show how the Son 
of God could, consistently with truth, profess himself to 
be the " Saviour of men," the Saviour and u light of the 
world," and "the drawer of all men unto himself;" if 
most men have been from all eternity under the fearful 
curse of Calvinian reprobation. We ask, if the Re- 
deemer would have "told a gross untruth," upon the 
supposition that Calvinism is true, had he called him- 
self the reprobater of men ; the non-redeemer, the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



103 



damner of the world, and the rejecter of all men 
from himself; seeing that, according to the doctrines 
of grace, (so called,) the bulk of mankind were ever 
reprobated, never redeemed, never initially saved, and 
never drawn to Christ. We beseech candid Protestants 
to say if the Bible do not clear up all the difficulties with 
which prejudiced divines have clogged the genuine doc- 
trines of grace, when it testifies that our Redeemer and 
Saviour has procured a general temporary redemption, 
together with an initial salvation, for all men univer- 
sally ; and a particidar eternal redemption, together 
with a finished salvation, for " them that obey him, and 
endure to the end." And we entreat the lovers of the 
whole truth as it is in Jesus to help us to bring about 
this Scriptural plan, a reconciliation between those who 
contend for the doctrines of particular redemption and 
finished salvation ; and those who maintain the doc- 
trines of general redemption and of " a day of salva- 
tion" for all mankind. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE VII. 

" I believe that God, foreseeing some men's nature 
will improve the grace which is given them, and that 
they will repent, believe, and be very good, elects them 
unto salvation." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE VII. 

We believe that out of mere mercy, and rich free 
grace in Jesus Christ, without' any respect to foreseen 
repentance, faith, or goodness, God places all men in a 
state of initial salvation ; electing them to that state ac- 



104 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



cording to the mysterious counsel of his distinguishing 
love, which places some under the bright and direct 
beams of gospel truth ; while he suffers others to re- 
ceive the external light of it only through that variety 
of clouds which we call Calvinism, Popery, Judaism, 
and Mohammedanism;* leaving most in Gentilism, 
that is, in the dispensation under which Cain, Abel, 
Abimelech, king of Gerar, and Melchisedec, king of 
Salem, formerly were. 

2. We believe that God, for Christ's sake, peculiarly 
(although with different degrees of favour) accepts all 
those who, in all the above-mentioned religions, i. e., "in 
every nation, fear him and work righteousness." These, 
when considered as enduring to the end, are his elect, 
according to the election of remunerative justice. For 
these he is gone to " prepare the many mansions in his 
Father's house :" for these he designs the " reward of 
the inheritance that fadeth not away in heaven." And 
when he speaks of some men as belonging to this 
number, it is always with respect to his foreknowledge 
that they will freety persevere in the obedience of faith ; 
it being the highest pitch of Antinomian dotage to sup- 
pose that God, the true, the wise, the holy, and right- 
eous God, elects men to the reward of persevering 

* Calvinism is Christianity obscured by mists of Pharisaic elec- 
tion and reprobation, and by a cloud of stoical fatalism. Popery is 
Christianity under a cloud of Pharisaic bigotry, and under thick fogs 
of heathenish superstition. Judaism is Christianity under the veil 
of Moses. Mohammedanism is a jumble of Christianity, Judaism, 
Gentilism, and imposture. And Gentilism is the religion of Cain 
and Abel ; or, if you please, of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, under a 
cloud of false and dark tradition. Some call it the religion of na. 
ture : I have no objection to the name, if they understand by it the 
religion of our nature in its present state of initial recovery, through 
Christ, from its total fall in Adam. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



105 



obedience, without taking any notice of persevering 
obedience in his election. 

To sum up all in a few lines : the doctrine of elec- 
tion has two branches : according to the first branch 
we are chosen that we should be holy and obedient, in 
proportion to the ordinary or extraordinary helps which 
divine grace affords us under one or other of its dis- 
pensations. This election to holiness has nothing to 
do with prescience ; it depends entirely on free grace and 
distinguishing favour. According to the second branch 
of the doctrine of election, we are chosen to receive the 
rewards of perfected holiness and of persevering obedi- 
ence, in proportion both to the talents which free distin- 
guishing grace has afforded us, and to the manner in 
which our assisted free will has improved those talents. 
This remunerative election depends on four things: 
(1.) On free grace, promising for Christ's sake the reward 
of the inheritance to the persevering obedience of faith. 
(2.) On faithful free will, securing that reward by 
the assistance of free grace, and by the free obedience 
of faith. (3.) On divine faithfulness, keeping its 
gospel promise for ever. And, (4.) On distributive 
justice, dispensing the reward according to the law of 
Christ, and according to every man's work. This elec- 
tion therefore has much to do with divine prescience, as 
depending in part upon God's knowledge that " some 
men have improved, or will improve, the grace which 
is given them, repent, believe, and be good [if not 'very 
good'] and faithful servants unto the end." 

Unprejudiced readers will easily see how much our 
doctrine of election is preferable to that of our oppo- 
nents. Ours draws after it only a harmless reprobation 
from some peculiar favours, and a righteous reproba- 
5* 



106 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



tion from rewards of grace and glory obstinately de- 
spised, or wantonly forfeited ; but the election of the 
Calvinists is clogged with the dreadful dogmas of an 
unscriptural and terrible reprobation, which might be 
compared to a well-known monster. "Prima Leo, pos- 
trema Draco, media ipsa Chimera " Its head is 
free icrath ; its body, unavoidable sin ; and its tail, 
finished damnation. In a word, our election recom- 
mends God's free, distinguishing grace, without pouring 
any contempt on the holiness of Christ's precepts, the 
sanction of his law. the veracity of his threatenings, 
and the conditionally of his promises. And our rep- 
robation displays God's absolute sovereignty, without 
sullying his mercy, impeaching his veracity, or dis- 
gracing his justice. In a word, our election doctrinally 
guards the throne of sovereign grace, and our reproba- 
tion that of sovereign justice: but Calvinian election 
and reprobation doctrinally overthrow both these 
thrones : or if they are left standing, it is to allow free 
wrath to fill the throne of justice, and unchaste, bloody 
Diana, to step into the throne of grace, whence she 
hints to Laodicean believers that they may with advan- 
tage commit adultery, murder, and incest ; calling as 
many as take her horrid innuendoes, " My love, my 
undefiled," &c. and assuring them that they shall never 
perish, and that all things (the most grievous sins not 
excepted) shall work for their good. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

* I believe that the love and favour of Him, with 
whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning, and 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



107 



whose gift8 and callings are without repentance, may 
vary, change, and turn every hour, and every moment, 
according to the behaviour of the creature." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

We believe that God's works were all originally very 
good, and that God did love or approve of them all as 
very good in their places. We maintain that some of 
God's works, such as some angels, and our first parents, 
by free avoidable disobedience forfeited God's love or 
approbation. He approved or loved them while they 
continued righteous; and disapproved or hated them 
when the bad use which they made of their free will 
deserved his disapprobation or hatred. Again : we be- 
lieve that God's absolute gifts and callings are with- 
out repentance. God never repented that he gave all 
mankind his paradisiacal favour in Adam, and yet all 
mankind forfeited it by the fall. God never repented 
that he called all his servants, and " gave to every one" 
of them his talents, as he thought fit ; and yet, when 
the " wicked and slothful servant had buried" and for- 
feited his talent, God said, " Take the talent from 
him !" 

Once more : we believe, that so certain as God is 
the gracious Creator and the righteous Judge of angels 
and men, the doctrines of divine grace and divine justice 
(or the two gospel axioms) are perfectly reconcileable ; 
and that, of consequence, God can justly curse mankind 
with temporal death, after having blessed them with 
paradisiacal life ; and punish them in hell, after having 
blessed them a second time with initial salvation during 
their day of personal probation on earth. To deny this, 



108 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



is to deny that there are graves on earth, or torments in 
hell, for any of the children of men. 

Nevertheless, we believe that there is no positive 
change in God. From eternity to eternity he is the 
same holy and faithful God ; therefore he unchange- 
ably " loves righteousness and hates iniquity." Apos- 
tacy in men or in angels does not imply any change in 
him ; the change being only in the receptive disposition 
of his free willing creatures. If I make my eyes so 
sore that I cannot look with pleasure at the sun, or that 
its beams, which cheered me yesterday, give me pain 
to-day; this is no proof that the sun has changed its 
nature. The law that condemns a murderer absolves 
me now ; but if I stab my neighbour in ten minutes, 
the same law that now absolves me will in ten minutes 
condemn me. " Impossible !" says Mr. Hill's scheme : 
" the law changes not." I grant it ; but a free agent 
may change ; and the law of liberty, which is but the 
transcript of God's eternal nature, is so ordered, that, 
without changing at all, it nevertheless treats all free 
agents according to their changes. The changes that 
God makes in the world do not change him ; much 
less is he changed by the variations of free agents : 
such variations, indeed, lay rebels and penitents open to 
a new aspect from the Deity ; but that aspect was in 
the Deity before they laid themselves open to it. Fire, 
without changing its nature, melts wax and stiffens 
clay ; now, if a rebel's heart absolutely hardens itself, 
so that it becomes like unyielding clay ; or if a peni- 
tent's heart humbles itself, so that it becomes like yield- 
ing wax, God changes not any more than the fire, 
when he hardens the stiff rebel by resisting him, and 
melts the yielding penitent by giving him more grace. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



109 



To understand this better, we must remember that 
frod's eternal nature is to " resist the proud, and give 
grace to the humble ;" and that when free grace (which 
has appeared to all men) assists us, we are as free to 
choose humility and life as we are to choose pride 
and death when we dally with temptation, or indulge 
the natural depravity of our own hearts. Hence it 
follows that the judicious difference which God makes 
when he alternately smiles and frowns, dispenses re- 
wards and punishments, springs not from any altera- 
tion in his unchangeable nature, but from a change in 
the mutable will and behaviour of free agents ; a change 
this, which arises from their ivill freely resisting 
divine grace, if the alteration be for the worse ; and 
from their will yielding without necessity to that 
grace, if the change be for the better. Nor are we 
any more ashamed to own man's free agency before a 
world of fatalists than we are ashamed to say, " Verily 
there is a reward for the righteous : though hand join 
in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished : doubt- 
less there is a God that judgeth the earth, and will 
render to every man according to his works ;" that is, 
according to his free will ; works being our own works 
only so far as they spring from our own free will. And 
we think that the opposite doctrine is one of the most 
absurd errors that ever disgraced Christianity ; and one 
of the most dangerous engines which were ever invented 
in Babel to sap the walls of Jerusalem ; — a dreadful 
engine this, which, if it rested upon truth, would pour 
floods of disgrace on all the divine perfections ; would 
overset the tribunal of the Judge of all the earth ; and 
would raise upon the tremendous ruins the throne of 
the doctrinal idol of the day : I mean the spurious doc- 



110 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



trine of grace, which I have sometimes called the great 
Diana of the Calvinists, because, like the great Diana 
of the Ephesians, it may pass at once for Luna, or 
finished salvation in heaven, and for Hecate, or 
finished damnation in hell. 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE IX. 

K I believe that the seed of the word by which God's 
children are born again is a corruptible seed ; and that, 
so far from enduring for ever, (as that mistaken apostle 
Peter rashly affirms.) it is frequently rooted out of the 
hearts of those in whom it is sown." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE IX. 

We believe that the word or the truth of God is the 
divine seed by which sinners are born again when 
they receive it, that is, when they believe ; and this 
spiritual seed (as that enlightened apostle Peter justly 
affirms) " endures for ever f — but not for Antinomian 
purposes ; — not to say to fallen believers, in the very act 
of adultery or incest, " My love ! my undefiled ! r ' No : 
it " endures for ever,-' as a seed of reviving or terrifying 
truth: it "endures for ever ; as a two-edged sword to 
defeud the righteous, or to wound the wicked : to pro- 
tect obedient believers, or to pierce disobedient and ob- 
stinate unbelievers ; it ? endures for ever' as a sweet 
" savour of life" to them that receive and keep it ; and 
as a bitter " savour of death" to them that never receive 
it, and to them that finally cast it away, and never 
" bring forth fruit to perfection." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



Ill 



But although the seed of the word can never be lost 
with respect to both its effects, yet (as we have already 
observed) it is too frequently lost with regard to its more 
desirable effect : if Mr. Hill doubts of it, we refer him 
to the parable of the sower, where our Lord observes 
that the good seed was thus lost in three sorts of people 
out of four, merely through the want of co-operation or 
concurrence on the part of free will, which he calls good 
or bad ground, soft or " stony ground," (fee, according 
to the good or bad choice it makes, and according to the 
steadiness or fickleness of that choice. And if Mr. Hill 
exclaim against the obvious meaning of so well-known 
a portion of the gospel, the world will easily see that, 
supposing his doctrine of grace deserves to be called 
chaste, when it prompts him to vindicate, as openly as 
he dares, the profitableness of adultery and incest to 
fallen believers ; it by no means merits to be called 
devout, when it excites him to insinuate that our Lord 
preached a "shocking, not to say blasphemous doc- 
trine." 



THE FICTITIOUS CREED. 

ARTICLE X. 

" I believe that Christ does not always give unto his 
sheep eternal life ; but that they often perish, and are 
by the power of Satan frequently plucked out of his 
hand." 

THE GENUINE CREED. 

ARTICLE X. 

We believe that Christ's sheep, mentioned in John x, 
are obedient, persevering believers ; that is, as our Lord 
himself describes them, John x, 4, 5, 27, persons that 



112 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



" hear [i. e., obey] his voice," and " whom he knows," 
[i. e., approves ;] persons that " know [i. e., approve] his 
voice f that " know not [i. e., do not approve] the voice 
of strangers :" and " flee from a stranger," instead of 
following him : in a word, persons that actually " follow 
the good Shepherd" in some of his folds or pastures. 
In this description of a sheep, every verb is put in the 
present tense, to show us that the word sheep denotes 
a character, or persons actually possessed of such a 
character. So that the moment the character changes ; 
the moment a man who once left all to follow Christ 
leaves Christ to " follow a stranger," he has no more to 
do with the name and privileges of a sheep than a 
deserter or a rebel has to do with the name and privi- 
leges of his majesty's soldiers or subjects. 

According, then, to our doctrine, no " sheep of 
Christ" that is, no actual follower of the Redeemer, 
perishes. We think it is shocking to say that any of 
them are plucked out of his hand. On the contrary, 
we frequently say, with St. Peter, " Who will harm you 
[much more, who will separate you from the love of 
Christ] if ye be followers of that which is good ?" i. e., 
if you be sheep : and we insist upon the veracity of our 
Lord's promise, "He that endureth unto the end," in 
the character of a sheep, i. e., in the way of faith and 
obedience, " the same shall be [eternally] saved." And 
we maintain, that so long as a believer does not make 
shipwreck of the faith and of a good conscience; so 
long as he continues a sheep, a harmless follower of the 
Lamb of God, he can no more perish than God's ever- 
lasting throne can be overturned. But what has this 
doctrine of our Lord to do with Calvinism ? 

With regard to the sheep mentioned in Matt, xxv, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



113 



33, 34, whom our Lord calls " blessed of his Father," 
we believe that they represent the multitude of obedient, 
persevering believers, whom two apostles describe thus : 
" Blessed are they that do his [God's] commandments, 
that they may have right [or, if Mr. Hill pleases, privi- 
lege] to the tree of life, and enter, &c, into the city," 
Rev. xxii, 14. " Blessed is the man that endureth 
temptation ! for when he is tried, he shall receive the 
crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them 
that love him." u And this is the love of God, that we 
keep his commandments," James i, 12 ; 1 John v, 3. 
For such enduring; obedient believers, a kingdom of 
glory " is prepared from the foundation of the world :" 
and to it they are and shall be judicially elected ; while 
the goats, i. e., unbelievers, or disobedient, fallen be- 
lievers, are and shall be judicially reprobated from it. 
Hence it is, that when our Lord accounts for his judi- 
cial election of the obedient, (whom he parabolically 
calls sheep,) he does not say, " Inherit the kingdom," 
&c. ; for I absolutely finished your salvation : but he 
says, " Inherit the kingdom, for ye gave me meat," &c. ; 
ye fed the hungry from a right motive ; and what you 
did in that manner, I reward it as if you had done it to 
myself. In other terms, "Ye heard my voice, and fol- 
lowed me ;" in hearing the whispers of my grace, and 
following the light of your dispensation ; and now I 
own you as my eternally rewardable elect, my sheep, 
which have followed me without finally drawing back. 

Again : when our Lord gives an account of the judi- 
cial reprobation of the finally disobedient, whom he 
parabolically calls goats, he does not say, " Depart, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world ;" for then I absolutely finished 



114 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



your eternal reprobation. No : this is the counterpart 
of the gospel of the day. But he says, " Depart, &c. ; 
for ye gave me no meat," by feeding the hungry in 
your generation, &c. : that is, ye did not believingly 
follow me in following your light and my precepts. 
Either you never began your course, or you drew back 
before you had finished it. Either you never volun- 
tarily listed under my banner, or you deserted before 
you had " fought the good fight" out : either you never 
believed in me, the light of the world, and your light ; 
or, instead of keeping the faith, you voluntarily, avoid- 
ably, unnecessarily, and resolutely made shipwreck of 
it and of a good conscience : and therefore your damna- 
tion is of yourselves. You have personally forfeited 
your conditional election to the rewards of persevering 
obedience, and personally made your conditional re- 
probation from those rewards sure by your final dis- 
obedience. 

From these evangelical descriptions of the sheep and 
the goats, mentioned in John x, and Matt, xxv, it ap- 
pears to us indubitable : (1.) That these sheep [i. e., 
obedient, persevering believers] " shall never perish ;" 
although they might have perished, if they had "brought 
upon themselves swift destruction by denying the Lord 
that bought them." (2.) That they shall be eternally 
saved, although they might have missed eternal salva- 
tion, if they had finally disregarded our Lord's declara- 
tion : " He that endureth unto the end, the same shall 
be [finally] saved." (3.) That the good Shepherd pecu- 
liarly laid down his life for the eternal redemption of 
obedient, persevering believers ; and that these believers 
are sometimes eminently called God's elect, because 
they make their conditional calling to the rewards of 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



115 



perseverance sure, by actually persevering in the obe- 
dience of faith. (4.) That the peculiarity of the eternal 
redemption of Christ's persevering- followers, far from 
being connected with the absolute reprobation of the 
rest of mankind, stands in perfect agreement with the 
doctrines of a, general, temporary redemption, and a 
general, initial salvation ; and with the doctrines of 
a gratuitous election to the blessings of one or another 
dispensation of God's saving grace ; and of a condi- 
tional election to the rewards of voluntary, unnecessi- 
tated obedience. (5.) That our opponents give the 
truth as it is in Jesus two desperate stabs, when they 
secure the peculiar, eternal redemption of finally dis- 
obedient believers, and comfort mourning backsliders in 
so unhappy a manner, as to overthrow the general, 
temporary redemption of all mankind, and to encou- 
rage or countenance the present disobedience of Laodi- 
cean believers. (6.) That the Calvinian doctrines of 
grace, which do this double mischief under such fair 
pretences, are, of all the tares which the enemy sows> 
those which come nearest to the wheat, and of conse- 
quence those by which he can best feed his immoral 
goats, deceive simple souls, set Christ's moral sheep at 
perpetual variance, turn the fruitful field of the church 
into a barren field of controversy, and make a Deistical 
world think that faith is enthusiastical fancy; that 
orthodoxy is immoral nonsense ; and that revelation is 
nothing but an apple of discord. (7.) And, lastly, that 
the doctrines of grace which w T e maintain do equal 
justice to the divine attributes; defend faith, without 
wounding obedience; oppose Pharisaism, without re- 
commending Antinomianism ; assert the truth of God's 
promisesj without representing his most awful threaten- 



116 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ings as words without meaning; reconcile the Scrip- 
tures, without wounding conscience and reason ; exalt 
the gracious wonders of the day of atonement, without 
setting aside the righteous terrors of the great day of 
retribution ; extol our heavenly Priest, without pouring 
contempt upon our divine Prophet ; and celebrate the 
honours of his cross, without turning his sceptre of 
righteousness into a Solifidian reed, his royal crown 
into a crown of thorns, and his law of liberty into a 
rule of life, by which his subjects can no more stand 
or fall in judgment than an Englishman can stand or 
fall by the rules of civility followed at the French 
court. 

To the best of my knowledge, reader, thou hast been 
led into the depth of our doctrines of grace. I have 
opened to thee the mysteries of the evangelical system, 
which Mr. Hill attacks as the heresy of Arminians. 
And now let impartiality hand thee up to the judg- 
ment seat : let reason and revelation hold out to thee 
their consentaneous light : pray that the u Spirit of 
truth" may help thine infirmities : turn prejudice out 
of the court ; and let candour pronounce the sentence, 
and say whether our principles or those of Mr. Hill 
" inevitably" draw after them " shocking, not to say 
blasphemous," consequences ? 

I shall close this answer to the creed which that 
gentleman has composed for Arminians by an observa- 
tion which is not entirely foreign to our controversy. 
In one of the Three Letters which introduce the Ficti- 
tious Creed Mr. Hill says : " Controversy, I am per- 
suaded, has not done me any good f and he exhorts 
me to examine closely whether I cannot make the same 
confession. I own that it would have done me harm, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



117 



if I had blindly contended for my opinions. Nay, if I 
had shut my eyes against the light of truth ; if I had 
set the plainest scriptures aside, as if they were not 
worth my notice; if I had overlooked the strongest 
arguments of my opponents ; if I had advanced ground- 
less charges against them ; if I had refused to do justice 
to their good meaning or piety : and, above all, if I had 
taken my leave of them by injuring their moral charac- 
ter, by publishing over and over again arguments which 
they had properly answered, without taking the least 
notice of their answers ; if I had made a solemn pro- 
mise not to read one of their books, though they should 
publish a thousand volumes; if, continuing to write 
against them, I had fixed upon them (as " unavoidable" 
consequences) absurd tenets, which have no more ne- 
cessary connection with their principles than the doc- 
trine of general redemption has with Calvinian repro- 
bation ; if I had done this, I say, controversy would 
have wounded my conscience or my reason ; and, with- 
out adding any thing to my light, it would have im- 
moveably fixed me in my prejudices, and perhaps brand- 
ed me before the world for an Arminian bigot. But, as 
matters are, I hope I may make the following acknow- 
ledgment without betraying the impertinence of proud 
boasting. 

Although I have often been sorry that controversy 
should take up so much of the time which I might, 
with much satisfaction to myself, have employed in de- 
votional exercises ; and although I have lamented, and 
do still lament, my low attainments in the " meekness 
of wisdom," which should constantly guide the pen of 
every controversial writer ; yet I rejoice that I have been 
enabled to persist in my resolution either to wipe off or 



118 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



to share the reproach of those who have hazarded their 
reputation in defence of pure and undefiled religion : 
and, if I am not mistaken, my repeated attempts have 
been attended with these happy effects. In vindicating 
the moral doctrines of grace, I hope that, as a man, I 
have learned to think more closely, and to investigate 
truth more ardently, than I did before. There are 
rational powers in the dullest souls, which he bid as 
sparks in a flint. Controversial opposition and exer- 
tion, like the stroke of the steel, have made me accident- 
ally find out some of these latent sparks of reason, for 
which 1 should never have thanked my Maker if I had 
never discovered them. I have frequently been thank- 
ful to find that my horse could travel in bad roads better 
than I expected ; nor do I think that it is a piece of 
Pharisaism to say, I am thankful to find that my mind 
can travel with more ease than I thought she could 
through theological roads, rendered almost impassable 
hy heaps of doctrinal rubbish brought from all parts of 
Christendom, and by briers of contention which have 
kept growing for above a thousand years. To return : 
As a divine^ I see more clearly the gaps and stiles at 
which mistaken good men have turned out of the 
narrow way of truth to the right hand and to the left. 
As a Protestant., I hope I have much more esteem for 
the Scriptures in general, and in particular for those 
practical parts of them which the Calvinists had insen- 
sibly taught me to overlook or despise: and this in- 
creasing esteem is, I trust, accompanied with a deeper 
conviction of the truth of Christianity, and with a greater 
readiness to defend the gospel against infidels, Pharisees, 
and Antinomians. As a preacher^ I hope I can do 
more justice to a text, by reconciling it with seemingly 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



119 



contrary scriptures. As an anti- Calvinists I have 
learned to do the Calvinists justice in granting that 
there is an election of distinguishing grace for God's 
peculiar people, and a 'particular redemption for all 
believers who are faithful unto death ; and by that 
means, as a controvertist, I can more easily excuse 
pious Calvinists, who, through prejudice, mistake that 
Scriptural election for their Antinomian election ; and 
who consider that particular redemption as the only 
redemption mentioned in the Scriptures. Nay, I can, 
without scruple, allow Mr. Hill, that his doctrines of 
finished salvation and irresistible grace are true 
with respect to ail those who die in their infancy. As 
one who is called an Arminian, I have found out some 
flaws in Arminianism, and evidenced my impartiality 
in pointing them out, as well as the flaws of Calvinism.* 
As a witness for the truth of the gospel, I hope I have 
learned to bear reproach from all sorts of people with 
more undaunted courage : and I humbly trust that, 
were I called to seal with my blood the truth of the 
doctrines of grace and justice against the Pharisees 
and the Antinomians, I could (divine grace supporting 
me to the last) do it more rationally, and of conse* 
quence with greater steadiness. Again : as a folloioer 
of Christ, I hope I have learned to disregard my 
dearest friends for my heavenly Prophet : or, to speak 
the language of our Lord, I hope I have learned to 
" forsake father, mother, and brothers, for Christ's sake 
and the gospel's." As a disputant, I have learned that 
solid arguments and plain scriptures make no more 
impression upon bigotry than the charmer's voice does 

* See Preface to Fictitious and Genuine Creed, Fletcher's Works, 
vol. i, p. 395. 



120 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



upon the deaf adder; and by that mean, I hope, 1 
depend less upon the powers of reason, the letter of 
the Scripture, and the candour of professors, than I 
formerly did. As a believer, I have been brought to 
see and feel that the power of the Spirit of truth, 
which teaches men to be of one heart and of one mind, 
and makes them think and speak the same, is at a 
very low ebb in the religious world : and that the prayer 
which I ought continually to offer is, O Lord, baptize 
Christians with the Spirit of truth, and the fire of love. 
Thy kingdom come ! Bring thy church out of the 
wilderness of error and sin into the kingdom of u right- 
eousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost/' As a 
member of the Church of England. I have learned to 
be pleased with our holy mother for giving us floods of 
pure morality to wash away the few remaining Cal- 
vinian freckles still perceptible upon her face. As a 
Christian. I hope I have learned in some degree to 
exercise that charity which teaches us boldly to oppose 
a dangerous error, without ceasing to honour and love 
its abettors, so far as they resemble our Lord ; and 
teaches us to use an irony with St. Paul and Jesus 
Christ, not as an enemy uses a dagger, but as a sur- 
geon uses a lancet or a caustic : and. lastly, as a writer, 
I have learned to feel the truth of Solomons observa- 
tion : Of making many books there is no end, and 
much study is a weariness of the flesh ; let us hear the 
conclusion of the whole matter : fear God and keep his 
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man," 
and the sum of the auti-Solfidian truth which I endea- 
vour to vindicate. 

I do not say that I have learned any of these lessons 
as I should have done ; but I hope I have learned so 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 121 

much of them as to say that in these respects my con- 
troversial toil has not been altogether in vain in the 
Lord. And now, reader, let me entreat thee to pray 
that, if I am spared to vindicate more fully what ap- 
pears to us the Scriptural doctrine of grace, I may 
be so helped by the Father of lights and the God of 
love, as to speak the pure truth in perfect love, and 
never more drop a needlessly severe expression. Some 
such have escaped me before I was aware. In endea- 
vouring to render my style nervous, I have sometimes 
inadvertently rendered it provoking. Instead of saying 
that the doctrines of grace (so called) represented God 
as " absolutely graceless" toward myriads of " repro- 
bated culprits," I would now say that, upon the prin- 
ciples of my opponents, God appears " devoid of grace" 
toward those whom he has absolutely " reprobated" from 
all eternity. The thought is the same, I grant ; but 
the expressions are less grating and more decent. This 
propriety of language I labour after, as well as after 
more meekness of wisdom. The Lord help me and 
my antagonists to " keep our garments clean !" Con- 
trovertists ought to be clothed with an ardent, flaming 
love for truth, and a candid, humble regard for their 
neighbours. May no root of prejudice stain that flaming 
love ! no malice rend our seamless garments ! and, if 
they are ever " rolled in blood," may it be only in the 
blood of our common enemies, destructive error, and 
the man of sin ! 

6 



122 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER X. 

A SCRIPTURAL ESSAY ON THE ASTONISHING RE- 
WARDABLENESS OF WORKS ACCORDING TO THE 
COVENANT OF GRACE. 

SECTION f. 

A VARIETY OF PLAIN SCRIPTURES, WHICH SHOW THAT 
HEAVEN ITSELF IS THE GRACIOUS REWARD OF THE 
WORKS OF FAITH, AND THAT BELIEVERS MAY LOSE 
THAT REWARD BY BAD WORKS. 

Having particularly guarded, in the preceding dis- 
course, the doctrine of salvation by the covenant of 
grace, and having endeavoured to secure the foundation 
of the gospel against the unwearied attacks of the 
Pharisees, I shall now particularly guard the works of 
the covenant of grace, and by that mean I shall secure 
the superstructure against the perpetual assaults of the 
Antinomians ; a part of my work this, which is so much 
the more important, as the use of a strong founda- 
tion is only to bear up a useful structure. 

None but fools act without motive. To deprive a 
wise man of every motive to act, is to keep him in total 
inaction; and to rob him of some grand motive, is 
considerably to weaken his willingness to act, or his 
fervour in acting. The burning love of God is un- 
doubtedly the most generous motive to obedience ; but 
alas ! thousands of good men, like Cornelius, are yet 
strangers to that powerful principle shed abroad in their 
hearts by the Holy Ghost. In thousands of weak be- 
lievers love is not yet properly kindled ; it is rather a 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



123 



smoking flax than a blazing fire : in thousands of La- 
odicean professors it is scarcely lukewarm ; and in all 
apostates it is waxed cold. Therefore, in the sickly 
state of the church militant, it is as absurd in preach- 
ers to urge no motive of good works but grateful love, 
as it would be in physicians to insist that a good sto- 
mach must be the only motive from which their 
patients ought to take either food or physic. 

Our Lord, far from countenancing our doctrinal 
refinements in this respect, perpetually secures the 
practice of good works, by promising heaven to all that 
persevere in doing them ; while he deters us from sin by 
threatening destruction to all that persist in committing 
it ; working thus alternately upon our hopes and fears, 
those powerful springs of action in the human breast. 

The force of this double incentive to practical reli- 
gion I greatly weakened, when, being carried away by 
the stream of Solifidianism, I rashly said in my old ser- 
mon, after some of our reformers, that " good works shall 
be rewarded in heaven and eternal life, although not 
with eternal life and heaven." An Antinomian error 
this, which I again publicly renounce, and against 
which I enter the following Scriptural protest. 

If the oracles of God command us to work from an 
initial life of grace for an eternal life of glory, fre- 
quently annexing the promise of heavenly bliss to good 
works, and threatening all workers of iniquity with 
hell torments, it follows, that heaven will be the gra- 
cious reward of good works, and hell the just wages of 
bad ones. 

I readily grant, however, that if we consider our- 
selves merely as sinners, in the light of the first gospel 
axiom, and according to the covenant of works, which. 



124 



BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 



we have so frequently broken, heaven is merely the 
gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ : for, ac- 
cording to that covenant, destruction is the wages of all 
who have committed sin. But if we be converted sin- 
ners, or obedient believers, and if we consider ourselves 
in the light of the second gospel axiom, and according 
to the covenant of grace, every unprejudiced person, 
who believes the Bible, must allow that heaven is the 
gracious reward of our works of faith. 

An illustration may help the reader to see the just- 
ness of this distinction. A charitable nobleman dis- 
charges the debts of ten insolvent prisoners, sets them 
up in great or little farms, according to their respective 
abilities, and laying down a thousand pounds before 
them, he says : — " I have already done much for you, 
but I will do more still. I freely give you this purse to 
encourage your industry. You shall share this gold 
among you, if you manage your farms according to my 
directions ; but if you let your fields be overrun with 
thorns, you shall not only lose the bounty I design for 
the industrious, but forfeit all my preceding favours." 
Now, who does not see that the thousand pounds thus 
laid down are a free gift of the nobleman ; that, never- 
theless, upon the performance of the condition or terms 
he has fixed, they become a gracious reward of indus- 
try; and that consequently the obtaining of this re- 
ward turns now entirely upon the works of industry 
performed by the farmers? 

Just so eternal salvation is the free gift of God 
through Jesus Christ ; and yet the obtaining of it (on 
the part of adults) turns entirely upon their works of 
faith ; that is, upon their works as well as upon their 
faith. Hence the Scripture says indifferently, " He that 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



125 



believeth is not condemned and, " If thou doest well 
shalt thou not be accepted V "All that believe are jus- 
tified;" and, "He that worketh righteousness is ac- 
cepted." Our Lord, speaking of a weeping penitent, 
says equally : " Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, 
for she loved much;" and, "Thy sins are forgiven; 
thy faith hath saved thee." As for St. Paul, though he 
always justly excludes the works of unbelief, and merely 
ceremonial works, yet he so joins faith and the works 
of faith, as to show us they are equally necessary to 
eternal salvation. " There is no condemnation," says 
he, " to them that are in Christ by faith," (here is the 
Pharisee's portion,) " who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit." (Here is the Antinomian's portion.) 
Hence it appears, that living faith now and always 
works righteousness, and that the works of righteous- 
ness now* and always accompany faith, so long as it 
remains living. 

"I know this is the doctrine," says the judicious Mr. 
Baxter, "that will have the loudest outcries raised 
against it, and will make some cry out, Heresy, Po- 
pery, Socinia?iism I and what not? For my own 
part, the Searcher of hearts knoweth that not singu- 
larity, nor any good will to Popery, provoketh me to 
entertain it; but that I have earnestly sought the 
Lord's direction upon my knees before I durst adven- 
ture on it ; and that I resisted the light of this conclu- 
sion as long as I was able." May this bright testimony 
make way for an illuminated cloud of prophets and 

* 1 use the word now, to stop up the Antinomian gap which one 
of my opponents tries to keep open by insinuating, that though a 
true believer may commit adultery and murder now, yet he will 
always work righteousness before he die. 



126 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



apostles! and may the Sun of righteousness, rising 
behind it, so scatter the shades of error, that we may 
awake out of our Laodicean sleep, and Antinomian 
dreams, and see a glorious, unclouded gospel day ! 

That, in subordination to Christ, our eternal salva- 
tion depends upon good works, i. e., upon the works of 
faith, will, I think, appear indubitable to them that 
believe the Bible, and candidly consider the follow- 
ing scriptures, in which heaven and eternal life in 
glory are suspended upon works, if they spring from 
a sincere belief in the light of our dispensation; I say, 
if they spring from true faith, it being absolutely 
impossible for a heathen, and much more for a Chris- 
tian, to work righteousness without believing in some 
degree "that God is, and that he is the rewarder 
of them that diligently seek him," as well as the 
punisher of them that presumptuously sin against 
him. "For without faith it is impossible to please 
God all faithless works springing merely from super- 
stition, like those of Baal's priests, or from hypocrisy, 
like those of the Pharisees. Having thus guarded 
again the doctrine of faith, I produce some of the 
many scriptures that directly or indirectly annex the 
above-mentioned reward to works : And, 

1. To consideration , conversion, and exercising 
ourselves to godliness. — "Because he considereth, and 
turneth away from his transgressions, &c, he shall 
surely live, he shall not die. When the wicked man 
turneth away from his wickedness, &c., he shall save 
his soul alive. Wherefore turn yourselves and live ye. 
Exercise thyself unto godliness, for it is profitable unto 
all things ; having the promise of the life that now is, 
and that which is to come." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



127 



2. To doing the will of God. — " He that does the 
will of my Father shall enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. He that does the will of God abideth for 
ever. Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is 
my brother and sister, i. e., the same is an heir of God, 
and a joint heir with Christ." 

3. To confessing Christ, and calling upon the 
name of the Lord. — " With the mouth confession is 
made to salvation. Whosoever, therefore, shall confess 
me before men, him will I confess also before my Fa- 
ther : but whosoever shall deny me before men, him 
will I also deny before my Father. Whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." 

4. To self denial. — " If thy hand offend thee, cut 
it off : it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than 
having two hands to go to hell, &c. And if thine eye 
offend thee, pluck it out : it is better for thee to enter 
into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having 
two eyes to be cast into hell fire. There is no man 
that hath left house, or brethren, &c, for my sake and 
the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred fold now. 
and in the world to come eternal life. He that loseth 
his life for my sake shall find it, &c. He that hateth 
his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal." 
And our Lord supposes that by "gaining the world" a 
man may " lose his own soul :" for, according to the 
covenant of grace, even reprobates are not totally lost 
till they make themselves sons of perdition, like Judas, 
i. e., till they personally and absolutely " lose their own 
souls" and heaven by their personal and obstinate pur- 
suit of worldly things. 

5. To diligent labour and earnest endeavours.- — 
" O man of God, lay hold on eternal life. Work out 



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your own salvation. Labour for the meat that endureth 
to everlasting life. Keep thy heart with all diligence, 
for out of it are the issues of life. In so doing thou 
shalt save thyself. Narrow is the gate that leads to 
life. Strive to enter iu. The violent press into the 
kingdom of God, and take it by force." 

6. To keeping the commandments. — il Blessed are 
they that do his commandments, &c., that they may 
enter through the gates into the city, i. e., into heaven. 
There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that 
worketh abomination. If thou wilt enter into life,* 
keep the commandments. Thou hast answered right; 
this do and thou shalt live. There is one Lawgiver, 
who is able to save and to destroy : [some of whose 
laws run thus :] Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. 
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 
With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. 
For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath 
showed no mercy. Blessed are the peace makers, for 
they shall be called the children of God, [and, of course, 
the heirs of the kingdom.] The King shall say unto 
them, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you, for I was hungry and ye gave 
me meat. &c Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to 
the Lord, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive 
the reward of the inheritance : but he that does wrong, 
shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and 
there is no respect of persons. Be ye therefore follow- 
ers of God as dear children, (fee, for this ye know, that 
no whoremonger, &c, hath any inheritance in the 
kingdom of God. The works of the flesh are mani- 

* See the excellent comment of our Church upon these words of 
our Lord, Fourth Check. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



129 



fest, which are these, adultery, &c, of which I tell you 
[believers] that they who do such things shall not in- 
herit the kingdom of God." 

7. To running, fighting, faithfully laying up 
treasure in heaven, and feeding the flock of God. — 
" They who run in a race run all ; but one receiveth 
the prize : so run that you may obtain. Now they are 
temperate in all things to obtain a corruptible crown ; 
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, fight, and 
bring my body into subjection, [that I may obtain,] lest 
I myself should be cast away ;" i. e., should not be ap- 
proved of, should be rejected, and lose my incorruptible 
crown. " Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on 
eternal life. Lay up treasure in heaven. Make your- 
selves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, 
that when you fail on earth they may receive you into 
everlasting habitations. Charge them who are rich 
that they do good, that they be rich in good works, lay- 
ing up in store for themselves a good foundation against 
the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal 
life. Feed the flock of God, &c., being examples to 
the flock, and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, 
ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away." 

8. To love and charity. — "Though I have all 
faith, <fcc, and have no charity, I am nothing. She 
[the woman] shall be saved, &c, if they [womankind] 
continue in faith and charity. Whosoever hateth his 
brother hath not eternal life. He that loveth not his 
brother abideth in death. We know we have passed 
from death unto life, because we love the brethren. If 
any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema. 
The crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to 
them that love him." 

6* 



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BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



9. To a godly walk. — w There is no condemnation 
to them, (fee, that walk not after the flesh. As many 
as walk according to this rule, mercy [be. or will be] on 
them. If we walk in the light, [of good works, Matt, 
v. 15.] the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. 
The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing 
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Many 
[fallen believers] walk, &c, enemies of the cross of 
Christ, whose end is destruction.'*' 

10. To persevering watchfulness, faithfulness, 
'prayer, <§*c. — "He that endureth unto the end, the 
same shall be saved. Be faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee the crown of life. Blessed is the man 
that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall 
receive the crown of life. Because thou hast kept the 
word of my patience, I wall also keep thee, &c. To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
throne. To him that keepeth my words unto the end, 
&e., will I give the morning star. Take heed to your- 
selves, &c.j watch and pray always, that ye may be 
counted worthy to escape, &e. 3 and to stand before the 
Son of man." In a word, 

11. To patient continuance in mortifying the 
deeds of the body, and in well doing. — "If ye live 
after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spi- 
rit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For 
he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap per- 
dition : but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the 
Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in 
well doing, for in due season we shall reap [not if we 
faint or not, but] if we faint not. He that reapeth re- 
ceiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal. Ye 
have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



131 



life." God, at the revelation of his righteous judgment, 
" will render to every man according to his deeds : eter- 
nal life to them who, by patient continuance in well 
doing, seek for glory. Anguish upon every soul of 
man that does evil, &c, but glory to every man that 
worketh good, &c, for there is no respect of persons 
with God." 

Is it not astonishing, that in sight of so many plain 
scriptures the Solifidians should still ridicule the pass- 
port of good works, and give it to the winds as a "paper 
kite ?" However, if the preceding texts do not appear 
sufficient, I can send another volley of gospel truths to 
show that the initial salvation of believers themselves 
may be lost through bad works. 

I know thy works, &c., so then, " because thou art 
lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth." " What 
doth it profit, my brethren, though a man [«$;, any one, 
and two verses below, any one of you, James ii, 14, 
16] say he hath faith, and hath not works," [now?] 
" Can faith save him, &c. ? Faith if it hath not works 
is dead, being alone. Grudge not one against another, 
brethren, lest ye be condemned." [In the original it is 
the same word which is rendered damned Mark xvi, 
16.] "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If 
we [believers] deny him, he will also deny us. Add to 
your faith virtue, &c., charity, &c. If ye do these 
things ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be 
ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord. It had been better for them that 
have escaped the pollutions of the world through the 
knowledge of our Saviour, [i. e., for believers,] not to 
have known the way of righteousness, than after they 
have known it to turn from the holy commandment 



132 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



delivered unto them. Every tree that bringeth not 
forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. 
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit my Father 
taketh away. Abide in me, &c. If a man abide not 
in me [by keeping my commandments in faith] he is 
cast forth as a branch, and is withered \ and [he shall 
share the fate of the branches that have really belonged 
to the natural vine, and now bear no more fruit] men 
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are 
burned." The fig tree in the Lord's moral vineyard is 
cut down for not bearing fruit. "Him that sinneth 
I will blot out of my book. Some, having put away a 
good conscience, concerning faith have made shipwreck. 
Such as turn back to their own wickedness, the Lord 
shall lead them forth with the evil doers. Toward thee 
goodness, if [by continuing in obedience] thou continue 
in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off." 

Again : " For the wickedness of their doings I will 
drive them out of my house, I will love them no more. 
Some are already turned aside after Satan, having 
damnation because they have cast off their first faith ; 
the faith that works by love ; the mystery of faith kept 
in a pure conscience; the faith unfeigned [that the 
apostle couples with] a good conscience ;" the faith that 
is made perfect by works ; the faith that cries, like Ra- 
chel, Give me children, give me good works, or else I die ; 
— the faith that faints without obedience, and actually 
dies by bad works ; the following scriptures abundantly 
proving that faith, and consequently the just who live 
by faith, may die by bad works. 

" When a righteous man* doth turn from his right- 

* That this is spoken of a truly righteous man, i. e., of a believer, 
appears from the following reasons : (1.) The righteous here men- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



133 



eousness and commit iniquity, &c, he shall die in his 
sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not 
be remembered," Ezek. iii, 20. Again: "When the 
righteous, &c, does according to all the abominations 
that the wicked man does, shall he live? All his right- 
eousness that he has done shall not be mentioned : in 
his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that 
he hath sinned, in them shall he die," Ezek. xviii, 24. 
Once more : " The righteousness of the righteous shall 
not deliver him in the day of his transgression, &c. 
When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live ;* 
if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, he 
shall die for it," Ezek. xxxiii, 13. 

tioned is opposed to the wicked mentioned in the context. As 
surely then as the word wicked means there one really wicked, so 
does the word righteous mean here one truly righteous. (2.) The 
righteous man's turning from his righteousness is opposed to the 
wicked man's turning from his iniquity. If, therefore, the righteous 
man's righteousness is to be understood of feigned goodness, so 
the wicked man's iniquity must be understood of feigned iniquity. 
(3.) The crime of the righteous man here spoken of is turning from 
his righteousness : but if his righteousness were only a hypocritical 
righteousness, he would rather deserve to be commended for re- 
nouncing it ; a wicked, sly Pharisee, being more odious to God than 
a barefaced sinner, who has honesty enough not to put on the mask 
of religion. Rev. iii, 15. (4.) Part of this apostate's punishment 
will consist in not having the righteousness that he has done re- 
membered. But if his righteousness is a false righteousness, or 
mere hypocrisy, the divine threatening proves a precious promise ; 
for you cannot please a hypocrite better than by assuring him that 
his hypocrisy shall never be remembered. What a pity is it, that to 
defend our mistakes we should fix egregious nonsense and gross 
contradiction upon the only wise God ! 

* These words are another indubitable proof that the righteous 
here mentioned is a truly righteous person ; as the holy and true 
God would never say to a wicked Pharisee, that he shall surely live. 



134 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



It seems that God, foreseeing the Solifidians would 
be hard of belief, notwithstanding the great ado they 
make about faith, condescended to their infirmity, and 
kindly spoke the same thing over and over ; for setting 
again the broad seal of heaven to the truth that chiefly 
guards the second gospel axiom, he says for the fourth 
time, " When the righteous turneth from his righteous- 
ness and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby: 
but if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that 
which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby," Ezek. 
xxxiii, 18, 19. 

If Ezekiel be not allowed to be a competent judge, 
let Christ himself be heard : " Then his Lord said unto 
him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that 
debt, &c. : shouldst not thou also have had compassion 
on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And 
his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor- 
mentors," Matt, xviii, 26, &c. 

All the preceding scriptures are thus summed up by 
our Lord, Matt, xxv, 46, "These [the persons who 
have not finally done the works of faith] shall go into 
everlasting punishment ; but the righteous [those who 
have done them to the end, at least from the time of 
their reconversion, if they were backsliders] shall go 
into eternal life." This doctrine agrees perfectly with 
the conclusion of the sermon on the mount : " Whoso- 
ever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I 
will liken him to a wise man, who built his house upon 
a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of 
mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a fool- 
ish man, who built his house upon the sand." Nay, this 
is Christ's explicit doctrine. No words can be plainer than 
these : " They that are in their graves shall hear his 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



135 



voice and come forth ; they that have done good unto 
the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of condemnation," John v, 29. 
All creeds, therefore, like that of St. Athanasius, and all 
faith, must end in practice. This is a grand article of 
what might, with peculiar propriety, be called the 
catholic faith — the faith that is common to, and essen- 
tial under all the dispensations of the everlasting gospel, 
in all countries and ages : " the faith which, except a 
man believe faithfully," i. e., so as to work righteousness., 
like the good and faithful servant, " he cannot be 
saved." 



SECTION II. 

AN ANSWER TO THE MOST PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS OF THE 
SOLIFIDIANS AGAINST THIS DOCTRINE." 

As some difficulties probably rise in the reader's mind 
against the preceding doctrine, it may not be amiss to 
produce them in the form of objections, and to answer 
them more fully than I have yet done. 

I. Objection. "All the scriptures that you have 
produced are nothing but descriptions of those who shall 
be saved or damned: you have therefore no ground 
to infer from such texts, that in the great day our works 
of faith shall be rewarded with an eternal life of glory, 
and our bad works punished with eternal death." 

Answer. Of all the paradoxes advanced by mis- 
taken divines, your assertion is perhaps the greatest. 
You have no more ground for it than I have for saying 
that England is a lawless kingdom, and that all the 
promises of rewards, and threatenings of punishments. 



136 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER 



stamped with the authority of the legislative power, are 
no legal sanctions. If I seriously maintained that the 
bestowing of public bounties upon the inventors of use- 
ful arts ; that the discharge of some prisoners, and the 
condemnation of others, according to the statutes of the 
realm, are things which take place without any respect 
to law; that the acts of parliament are mere descrip- 
tions of persons, which the government rewards, ac- 
quits, or punishes, without any respect to worthiness, 
innocence, or demerit ; and that the judges absolve or 
condemn criminals merely out of free grace and free 
wrath; if I maintained a paradox so dishonourable to 
the government and so contrary to common sense, 
would you not be astonished? And if I gave the 
name of Papist to all that did not receive my error as 
gospel, would you not recommend me to a dose of Dr. 
Monro's hellebore ? And are they much wiser who fix 
the foul blot upon the divine government, and make 
the Protestants believe that the sanctions of the King 
of ikngs, and the judicial dictates of him who judges 
the world in righteousness, are not laws and sentences, 
but representations and descriptions ? 

A comparison will show the frivolousness of your 
objection. There is, if I mistake not, a statute that 
condemns a highwayman to be hanged, and allows a 
reward of forty pounds to the person that takes him. 
A counsellor observes that this statute was undoubtedly 
made to deter people from going upon the highway, 
and to encourage the taking of robbers. "Not so," 
says a lawyer from Geneva, "though robbers are 
hanged according to law, yet the men that take them 
are not legally rewarded ; the sum mentioned in the 
statute is given them of free, gratuitous, undeserved, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



137 



unmerited, distinguishing grace." Nay, says the coun- 
sellor, if they do not deserve the forty pounds more 
than other people, that sum might as well be bestowed 
upon the highwaymen themselves as upon those who 
take them at the hazard of their life. "And so it 
might," says the Geneva lawyer ; " for although poor, 
blind legalists make people believe that the promissory 
part of the law was made to excite people to exert 
themselves in the taking of robbers, yet we know bet- 
ter at Geneva ; and I inform you that the clause you 
speak of is only a description of certain men, for whom 
the government designs the reward of forty pounds 
gratis." The admirers of Geneva logic clap their 
hands and cry out, " Well said ! down with legality !" 
but an English jury smiles and cries, "Down with 
absurdity !" (See Fletcher's Works, vol. i, p. 273.) 

II. Objection. " You confound our title to, with 
our meetness for heaven, two things which we carefully 
distinguish. Our title to heaven, being solely what 
Christ has done and suffered for his people, has nothing 
to do with either our holiness or good works ; but our 
meetness for heaven supposes holiness, if not good works. 
Therefore God's unconverted, sinful people, who have, 
in Christ, a complete title to heaven, by right of 'fin- 
ished salvation,' shall all be made meet for heaven in 
the day of his power." 

Answer 1. I understand you, and so does Mr. Ful- 
some. You insinuate that, till, the day you speak of 
comes, unconverted sinners and backsliders may in- 
dulge themselves like the servant mentioned in the 
gospel, who said, My master delay eth his coming, and 
began to drink with the drunken ; but alas ! instead of 
" a day of power" he saw a day of vengeance, and his 



138 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



" finished salvation," so called, ended in weeping, wail- 
ing, and gnashing of teeth. 

2. Your distinction is contrary to the Scriptures, 
which represent all impenitent workers of iniquity as 
having a full title to hell according to both law and 
gospel; so far are the oracles of God from supposing 
that some workers of iniquity have a full title to heaven, 
absolutely independent on the obedience of faith. 

3. It is contrary to reason ; for reason dictates that 
whosoever has a full title to a punishment, or to a reward, 
is fully meet for it. Where is the difference between 
saying that a murderer is fully meet for, or that he has 
a full title to the gallows ? If a palace richly furnished 
was bestowed upon the most righteous man in the 
kingdom, and you were the person, would it not be 
absurd to distinguish between your title to, and your 
meetness for that recompense? Or if the king, in 
consequence of a valuable consideration received from 
the prince, had promised a coronet to every swift runner 
in England, next to the prince's interposition and his 
majesty's promise, would not your running well be at 
once your title to and meetness for that honour ? And 
is not this the case with respect to the incorruptible 
crowns reserved in heaven for those who so run that 
they may obtain ? 

4. Your distinction draws after it the most horrid 
consequences : for if a full title to heaven may be sepa- 
rated from a meetness for the lowest place in heaven, 
it necessarily follows that Solomon had a full title to 
heaven when he worshipped Ashtaroth ; and the in- 
cestuous Corinthian when he defiled his father's bed ; 
in flat opposition to the dictates of every man's con- 
science, (if you except Mr. Fulsome and his fraternity.) 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



139 



It follows that St. Paul told a gross untruth when he 
said, " This ye know, that no idolater and no unclean 
person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ 
and of God." In a word, it follows that believers, 
" sanctified with the blood of the covenant, who draw 
back to perdition," (such as the apostates mentioned 
Heb. x, 29,) may have no title to heaven in all their 
sanctifying faith; while some impenitent murderers, 
like David and Manasses, have a perfect title to it in 
all their crimes and unbelief. 

5. This is not all. Our Lord's mark, " By their 
fruits ye shall know them," is absolutely wrong if you 
are right : for your distinction abolishes the grand cha- 
racteristic of the children of God and those of the devil, 
which consists in not committing or committing iniquity, 
in doing or not doing righteousness, according to these 
plain words of St. John, " He that committeth sin is of 
the devil. In this the children of God are manifest, 
and the children of the devil. Whosoever does not 
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not 
[much less he that murders] his brother," 1 John iii, 
8, 10. Thus the Lord's sacred enclosure is broken 
down, his sheepfold becomes a fold for goats, a dog- 
kennel, a swine-stye. Nay, for what you know, all 
bloody adulterers may be " sheep in wolves' clothing ;" 
while all " those that have escaped the pollution that is 
in the world" may only be " wolves in sheep's cloth- 
ing ;" it mattering not, with regard to the goodness of 
our title to heaven, whether " filthiness to Belial" or 
" holiness to the Lord" be written upon our foreheads. 
O,, sir, how much more dangerous is your scheme than 
that of the primitive Babel builders ! They only brought 
on a confusion of the original language ; but your doo 



140 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



trine confounds light and darkness, promises and threat- 
ening, the heirs of heaven and those of hell, the seed 
of the woman and that of the serpent. 

6. As to your intimation that holiness is secured by 
teaching that God's people shall absolutely be made 
willing to forsake their sins, and to become righteous 
in the day of God's power, that so they may have a 
meetness for, as well as a title to heaven ; it drags after 
it this horrid consequence : the devil's people, *? in the 
day of God's power," shall absolutely be made willing 
to forsake their righteousness, that they may have a 
meetness for, as well as a title to hell. A bitter reverse 
this of your " sweet gospel !" 

To conclude. If by your distinction you only want 
to insinuate that Christ is the grand and properly meri- 
torious procurer of our salvation, from first to last, and 
that the works of faith are only a secondary, instru- 
mental, evidencing cause of our final salvation, you 
mean just as I do. But if you give the world to under- 
stand that election to eternal glory is unconditional, or, 
which comes all to one, that no sin can invalidate our 
title to heaven ; from the preceding observations it ap- 
pears that you deceive the simple, make Christ the 
minister of sin, and inadvertently poison the church 
with the rankest Antinomianism. 

TIL Objection. " You call the works of Christ the 
primary and properly meritorious cause, and our works 
of faith the secondary and instrumental cause of our 
eternal salvation. But according to your doctrine, our 
works should be called the first cause, and Christ's work 
the second : for you make the final success of Christ's 
work to depend on our work, which is manifestly set- 
ting our performances above those of the Redeemer." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



141 



Answer % When a gardener affirms that he shall 
have no crop unless he dig and set his garden, does he 
manifestly set his work above that of the God of nature? 
And when we say that " we shall not reap final salva- 
tion, if we do not work out our salvation," do we exalt 
ourselves above the God of grace ? 

2. Whether our free agency turns the scale for life 
or death, to all eternity Christ shall have the honour of 
having died to bestow an initial life of grace even upon 
those who choose death in the error of their ways, and 
to have made them gracious and sincere offers of an 
eternal life of glory. In this sense, then, Christ's work 
cannot be rendered ineffectual ; it being his absolute 
decree that the word of his grace shall be the savour 
of life to obedient free agents, and the savour of death 
to the disobedient. Therefore, if we will not have the 
eternal benefit of his redeeming work, we cannot take 
from him the eternal honour of having shed his blood 
even for those who tread it under foot, and who " bring 
upon themselves swift destruction by denying the Lord 
that bought them." 

3. Christ is not dishonoured by the doctrine that re- 
presents the effect of the greater wheel as being thus in 
part suspended upon the turning of the less. The light 
of the sun shines in vain for me if I shut my eyes. 
Life is a far nobler gift than food. I can give my 
starving neighbour bread, but I cannot give him life. 
Nevertheless, the higher wheel stops, if the inferior is 
quite at a stand : he must die if he has no nourish- 
ment. Thus, by God's appointment, the preservation 
of all the first born of the Israelites in Egypt depended 
upon the sprinkling of a lamb's blood ; the life of all 
them that were bitten by the fiery serpents was sus- 



142 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

pended on a look toward the brazen serpent ; and that 
of Rahab and her friends hung, if I may so speak, on 
a scarlet thread. Now, if God did not dishonour his 
wisdom when he made the life of so many people to 
depend upon those seemingly insignificant works ; and 
if he continues to make the life of all mankind depend 
upon breathing ; is it reasonable to say that he is dis- 
honoured by his own doctrine, which suspends our 
eternal salvation upon the works of faith ? 

4. Your objection can be retorted. Most Calvinists 
grant that our justification in the day of conversion 
depends upon believing. Thus the Rev. Mr. Madan, 
in his sermon on James ii, 24, (p. 18,) says, " Though 
the Lord Jesus has merited our justification before God, 
yet we are not actually justified, till he be received into 
the heart by faith, and rested on," &c. Therefore, in 
the day of conversion, that great minister being judge, 
our justification is suspended on the work which he 
calls " receiving Christ," or " resting on him." And 
how much more may our eternal salvation be suspended 
on faith and works ; i. e., on resting upon Christ and 
working righteousness ! 

5. This is not all. Both Mr. Madan and Mr. Hill 
call faith the instrumental cause of our justification, 
and every body knows that the effect is always sus- 
pended on the cause. Now, if so great an effect as a 
sinner's present justification may be suspended upon the 
single cause of faith, why may not a believer's eternal 
justification be suspended upon the double cause of 
faith and its works ? In a word, why must Mr. Wesley 
be represented as heterodox for insinuating that believ- 
ing and working instrumentally cause our eternal 
justification ; when Mr. Madan wears the badge of 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



143 



orthodoxy, although he insinuates that believing instru- 
mentally causes our justification ? 

If Mr. Madan say that he allows faith to be an in- 
strumental cause, on account of its being the gift of 
God by which we receive Christ ; I answer, that we 
allow the work of faith to be an instrumental cause, 
because it springs from the Spirit of Christ, and consti- 
tutes our likeness to Christ, and our evangelical right- 
eousness ; a righteousness this which Christ came into 
the world to promote. u For God sending his Son, &c, 
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of 
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit," i. e., who walk in good works. 
If it is asserted that there can be but one instrumental 
cause of our salvation, that is, faith ; I appeal to reason, 
which dictates that Christian faith implies a variety of 
causes, such as preaching Christ, and hearing him 
preached : for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by 
the word of God. This argument, therefore, carries its 
own answer along with it. 

6. To conclude: Mr. Madan, in the above-quoted 
sermon, (p. 16.) says with great truth : — " Christ and 
faith are not one and the same thing ; how then can 
we reconcile the apostle with himself, when he says, in 
one place, we are justified by Christ ; and in another, 
we are justified by faith ? This can only be done by 
having recourse to the plain distinction which the Scrip- 
tures afford us in considering Christ as the meritorious 
cause, and faith as the instrumental cause, or that by 
which the meritorious cause is applied unto us, so that 
we are benefited thereby." Now all our heresy consists 
in applying Mr. Madan's judicious reasoning to all the 
scriptures that guard the second gospel axiom, thus: 



144 



EEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



" How can we reconcile the apostle with himself, when 
he says, in one place, f We are saved by Christ,' and in 
other places, 1 We are saved by faith, we are saved by 
hope. Work out your own salvation. Confession is 
made to salvation,' &c, for Christ and faith, Christ and 
hope, Christ and works, Christ and making confession, 
are not one and the same thing ? This seeming incon- 
sistency in St. Paul's doctrine vanishes by admitting a 
plain distinction which the Scriptures afford us : that is, 
(1.) By considering Christ, from first to last, as the pro- 
perly meritorious cause of our present and eternal salva- 
tion. (2.) By considering faith as the instrumental 
cause of our salvation from the guilt and pollution of 
sin on earth. And, (3.) By considering the works of 
faith not only as the evidencing cause of our justifica- 
tion in the great day, but also as an instrumental cause 
of our continuing in the life of faith; just as eating, 
drinking, breathing, and such works, that spring from 
natural life, are instrumental causes of our continuing 
in natural life." Thus faith and its works are two 
inferior causes, whereby the properly meritorious cause 
is so completely applied to obedient, persevering be- 
lievers, that they are now, and for ever shall be bene- 
fited by it. As I flatter myself that this sixfold answer 
satisfies the candid reader, I pass on to another plausible 
objection. 

IV. Objection. k Though you assert that from 
first to last the works and sufferings of Christ are the 
grand and properly meritorious cause of our salvation ; 
yet, according to your scheme, man having a life of 
glory upon his choice, and heaven upon working out 
his salvation, the honour of free grace is not secured. 
For, after all, free will and human faithfulness, or un- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



145 



faithfulness, turn the scale for eternal salvation or 
damnation." 

Answer. 1. In the very nature of things we are free 
agents, or the wise and righteous God would act incon- 
sistently with his wisdom and equity in dispensing re- 
wards and punishments. If, through " the saving grace 
of God" which " has appeared to all men," we were not 
again endued with an awful power to " choose life," 
and to be faithful, it would be as injudicious to punish 
or recompense mankind as to whip a dead horse for not 
moving, condemn fire for burning, or grant water an 
eternal reward for its fluidity. 2. Were I ashamed of 
my moral free agency, I should be ashamed of the noble 
power that distinguishes me from the brute creation. 
I should be ashamed of the Old Testament, and of 
Moses, who says, " Behold, I call heaven and earth to 
record, that I have set before you life and death, bless- 
ing and cursing ; therefore choose life." I should be 
ashamed of the New Testament, and of Christ, who 
complains, u You will not come unto me that you might 
have life," i. e., you will not use the poAver which my 
preventing grace has given you, that you might live 
here a life of faith and holiness, and be hereafter re- 
warded with a life of happiness and glory. In a word, 
I should give up the second gospel axiom, and tacitly 
reproach my Maker, who says, " Why will ye die, O 
house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death 
of him that dieth ; wherefore turn yourselves, and 
live ye." 

3. To convince you that free agency, and a right 
use of it, are by no means inconsistent with divine 
grace and genuine humility, I ask, Did not God endue 
our first parents with free will? Are not even some 

7 



146 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



rigid Calvinists ashamed to deny it? If free will in 
man is a power dishonourable to God. did not our wise 
Creator mistake when he pronounced man " very good," 
at the very time man was a free wilier ? For how could 
man be very good if he had within him a power that 
necessarily militates against the honour of God, as the 
Calvinists insinuate free will does ! 

4. I go one step farther, and ask, Did God ever endue 
one child of Adam with power to avoid one sin ? If you 
say no, you contradict the Scriptures, your own con- 
science, and the consciences of all mankind ; you fix 
the blot of folly on all the judges who have judicially 
punished malefactors with death ; and when you insi- 
nuate that the Lawgiver of the universe will send all 
workers of iniquity personally into hell for not " doing 
what is lawful and right to save their souls alive," or 
for not avoiding sin, when he never gave them the least 
power personally so to do, you pour almost as much 
contempt upon his perfections as if you hinted that he 
will one day raise all creeping insects, to judge them ac- 
cording to their steps, and to cast into a place of torment 
as many as did not move as swiftly as a race-horse. 

If you answer in the affirmative, and grant that God 
has graciously endued one child of Adam with power to 
avoid one sin, so far you hold free will as well as Moses 
and Jesus Christ. Now, if God has bestowed free will 
upon one child of Adam with respect to the avoiding of 
one sin, why not upon two, w T ith respect to the avoiding 
of two sins? Why not upon all, with respect to the 
avoiding of all the sins that are incompatible with the 
obedience of faith? 

5. Again: as it would be absurd to say that God 
gave a power to avoid one sin only to one child of 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



147 



Adam ; so it would be impious to suppose God gave 
him this power that, in case he faithfully used it, he 
should necessarily boast of it. Pharisaic boasting is, 
then, by no means the necessary consequence of our 
moral liberty, or of a proper use of our free will. Thus 
it appears that your specious objection is founded upon 
a heap of paradoxes ; and that to embrace free wrath 
lest we should not make enough of free grace, and to 
jump into fatalism lest we should be proud of our free 
will, is not less absurd than to prostrate ourselves before 
a traitor lest we should not honour the king, and to run 
to a house of ill fame lest we should be proud of our 
chastity. 

6. Our doctrine secures the honour of free grace as 
well as Calvinism. You will be convinced of it if you 
consider the following articles of our creed with respect 
to free grace : — (1.) Before the fall, the free grace of our 
Creator gave us in Adam holiness, happiness, and a 
power to continue in both. (2.) Since the fall, the free 
grace of our Redeemer indulges us with a reprieve, an 
accepted time, a day of visitation and salvation ; in a 
word, with a better covenant, and a " free gift that is 
come upon all men unto [initial] justification of life,' 7 
Rom. v, 18. (3.) That nothing may be wanted on 
God's part, the free grace of our Sanctifier excites us to 
make a proper use of the free gift, part of which is 
moral liberty. (4.) Thus even our free will to good 
is all of creating, redeeming, and sanctifying grace. 
Therefore, with regard to that glorious power, as well 
as to every other talent, we humbly ask, with St. Paul, 
" What hast thou, that thou hast not received ?" (5.) 
This is not all : we are commanded to " account the 
longsuffering of God [a degree of] salvation f and so 



148 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



it is: for without forcing, or necessarily inclining our 
will, God's providential free grace disposes a thousand 
circumstances in such a manner as to second the calls 
of the everlasting gospel. The gracious Preserver of . 
men works daily a thousand wonders to keep us out 
of the grave, and out of hell. A thousand wheels have 
turned ten thousand times, in and out of the church, 
to bring us the purest streams of gospel truth. Count- 
less breathings of the Spirit of grace add virtue to those 
streams ; free grace, therefore, not only prevents, but 
also in numberless ways accompanies, follows, directs, 
encourages, and assists us in all the works of our sal- 
vation. 

And yet, while God thus works in us, as the God of 
all grace, " both to will and to do of his good pleasure 
that is, while he thus gives us the faculty to will, and 
the power to do ; and while he secretly, by his Spirit, 
and publicly, by his ministers and providences, excites 
us to make a proper use of that faculty and power ; 
yet, as the God of wisdom, holiness, and justice, he 
leaves the act to our choice; thus treating us as ra- 
tional creatures, whom he intends wisely to reward, or 
justly to punish, according to their works, and not ac- 
cording to his own. 

Hence it appears that we go every step of the way 
with our Calvinist brethren while they exalt Christ and 
free grace in a rational and Scriptural manner; and 
that we refuse to follow them only when they set Christ 
at naught as a prophet, a lawgiver, a judge, and a king, 
tinder pretence of extolling him as a priest ; or when 
they put wanton free grace and unrelenting free wrath 
in the place of the genuine free grace testified of in the 
Scriptures. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



149 



Y. Objection. " One more difficulty remains : if I 
freely obey the gospel and am saved ; and if my neigh- 
bour freely disobeys it and is damned, what makes me 
to differ from him ? Is it not my free obedience of 
faith'/" 

Answer. Undoubtedly. And his free disobedience 
makes him differ from you ; or it would be very absurd 
judicially to acquit and reward you rather than him, 
accordiug to your works. And it would be strange 
duplicity to condemn and punish him rather than you 
in a day of judgment, after the most solemn protesta- 
tions that equity and impartiality shall dictate the 
Judge's sentence. 

As to the difficulty arising from St. Paul's question, 
1 Cor. iv, 7, " Who maketh thee to differ ?" to what I 
have said about it in the preceding sermon,* I add: 
1. According to the covenant of works, " all fall short 
of the glory of God." And when any one asks, with 
respect to the law of innocence, " Who makes thee to 
differ ?" the proper answer is, " There is no difference : 
every mouth must be stopped : all the world is guilty 
before God : enter not into judgment with thy servant, 
O Lord." But, according to the covenant of grace, he 
that freely believes and obeys in the strength of free 
grace undoubtedly makes himself to differ from him 
that, by obstinate disobedience, " does despite to the 
Spirit of grace." If this point be given up, the Diana 
and the Apollo, or rather the Apollyon, of the Antino- 
mians (I mean wanton free grace and merciless free 
wrath) are set up for ever. However, 

2. If the question, " Who maketh thee to differ?" be 
asked with respect to the number of our talents, the 
* FlelGher's Works, vol. i, p. 479. 



150 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



proper answer is, " God's distinguishing grace alone 
maketh us to differ." And that this is the sense which 
the apostle had in view is evident from the context. 
He had before reproved the Corinthians for "saying 
every one, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," &c. ; and 
now he adds, " These things I have in a figure trans- 
ferred to myself and to Apollos, that ye might learn in 
us not to think [of gifted, popular men, or of yourselves] 
above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed 
up for one against another : for who maketh thee to 
differ ?" Why is thy person graceful ? And why art 
thou naturally an eloquent man, like Apollos, while thy 
brother's speech is rude, and his bodily presence weak 
and contemptible, like mine ? But, 

3. If you ask, "Who maketh thee to differ?" with 
respect to the improvement or non-improvement of our 
gifts and graces : if you inquire whether God necessi- 
tates some to disbelieve, that they may necessarily sin 
and be damned ; while he necessitates others to believe, 
that they may necessarily work righteousness and be 
saved: I utterly deny the last question, and in this 
sense St. Paul answers his own misapplied question 
thus : " Be not deceived : what a man [not what God] 
soweth, that shall he also reap ;" perdition if he sow to 
the flesh, and eternal life if he sow to the Spirit. Nor 
am I either afraid or ashamed to second him, by saying, 
upon the walls of Jerusalem, that, in the last-mentioned 
sense, We make ourselves to differ. And Scripture, 
reason, conscience, the divine perfections, and the trump 
of God, which will soon summon us to judgment, testify 
that this reply stands as firm as one half of the Bible, 
and the second gospel axiom on which it is immoveably 
founded. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



151 



Nay, there is not a promise or a threatening in the 
Bible that is not a proof of our Lawgiver's want of 
wisdom, or of our Judge's want of equity, if we are not 
graciously endued with a capacity to make ourselves 
differ from the obstinate violators of the law and de- 
spisers of the gospel, — that is, if we are not free agents. 
There is not an exhortation, a warning, nor an entreaty 
in the sacred pages that is not a demonstration of the 
penman's folly, or of the freedom of our will. In a 
word, there is not a sinner justly punished in hell, nor 
a believer wisely rewarded in heaven, that does not in- 
directly say to all the world of rationals : " Though the 
God" of grace draws thee to obedience, yet it is with 
" the bands of a man." For, after all, he " leaves thee 
in the hand of thy counsel, to keep the commandments, 
and perform acceptable obedience if thou wilt. Before 
man is life and death, and whether him liketh shall be 
given him," Ecclus. xv, 14, &c. 

But, although your obedience of faith makes you to 
differ from your condemned neighbour, you have no 
reason to reject the first gospel axiom, and to indulge 
a boasting* contrary to faith and free grace : for your 

* There is a twofold glorying : the one Pharisaic and contrary to 
faith : of this St. Paul speaks, where he says, " Boasting is excluded, 
&c, by the law of faith," Rom. iii, 27. The other evangelical and 
agreeable to faith, since it is a believer's holy triumph in God, re- 
sulting from the testimony of a good conscience. Concerning it the 
apostle says, " Let every man prove his own work, and ihen shall 
he have rejoicing [boasting] in himself alone, and not in another," 
Gal. vi, 4. [The word in the original is kclvxtigiq in one passage, 
and icavxrifia in the other.] These seemingly contrary doctrines are 
highly consistent ; their opposition answering to that of the gospel 
axioms. The first axiom allows of no glorying but in Christ, who 
has alone fulfilled the law of works, or the terms of the first cove, 
nant: but the second axiom allows obedient believers an humble 



152 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



Christian faith, which is the root of your obedience, is 
peculiarly the gift of God ; whether you consider it as 
to its precious seed, (" the word nigh :") as to its glorious 
object, (Christ and the truth ;) as to the means by which 
that object is revealed, (such as preaching and hearing ;) 
as to the opportunities and faculties of using those 
means, (such as life, reason, &c. ;) or as to the Spirit 
of grace, whose assistance in this case is so important 
that he is called " the Spirit of faith." And yet that 
Spirit does not act irresistibly ; all believers unnecessa- 
rily and freely yielding to it, and all unbelievers unne- 
cessarily and freely resisting it. So far only does the 
matter turn upon free will. Thus it appears, that 
although the act of faith is ours, we are so much in- 
debted to free grace for it, that believers can no more 
boast of being their own saviours, because they daily 
believe and work in order to their final salvation, than 
they can boast of being their own preservers, because 
they daily breathe and eat in order to their continued 
preservation. 

On the other hand, although your condemned neigh- 
bour's disobedience makes him differ from you, he has 

tcavxvp-a, " glorying" or " rejoicing," upon their personally fulfilling 
the law of faith, or the gracious terms of the second covenant, 
2 Cor. i, 12. This rejoicing answers to what St. Paul calls the 
" witness of our own spirit," or " the testimony of a good con- 
science ;" which, next to the witness of the word and Spirit concern, 
ing God's mercy and Christ's blood, is the ground of a Christian's 
confidence. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we 
confidence toward God, &c, because we keep his commandments," 
1 John iii, 21, 22. And yet, astonishing ! this blessed rejoicing, so 
strongly recommended by St. Paul and St. John, who, one would 
think, knew something of the gospel, is now represented by some 
modern evangelists as the quintessence of Pharisaism. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 153 

no reason to reject the second gospel axiom, and to 
exculpate himself by charging heaven with capricious 
partiality and horrid free wrath : because God, whose 
mercy is over all his works, and who is no respecter of 
persons, graciously bestowed a talent of free grace upon 
him as well as upon you, according to one or another 
of the divine dispensations. For the royal master, 
mentioned in the gospel, gave a pound to the servant 
that buried it, as well as to him that gained ten pounds 
by occupying till his lord came. 

"But, upon that footing, what becomes of distin- 
guishing grace?" If by "distinguishing grace" you 
mean Calvinistic partiality, I answer, It must undoubt- 
edly sink, together with its inseperable partner, uncon- 
ditional reprobation, into the pit of error, whence they 
ascended to fill the church with contentions, and the 
world with infidels. But if you mean Scriptural dis- 
tinguishing grace, that is, the " manifold wisdom of 
God," which makes him proceed gradually, and admit 
a pleasing variety in the works of grace, as well as in 
the productions of nature ; — if you mean his good plea- 
sure to give the heathens one talent, the Jews two, the 
Papists three, the Protestants four ; or if you mean the 
different methods which he uses to call sinners to re- 
pentance, such as his familiar expostulation with Cain: 
his wonderful warning of Lot's sons-in-law : his rous- 
ing King Saul by the voice of Samuel, and Saul of 
Tarsus by the voice of Christ: (Samuel and Christ 
coming, or seeming to come from the invisible world 
for that awful purpose :) his audibly inviting Judas and 
the rich ruler to follow him, promising the latter hea- 
venly treasure if he would give his earthly possessions 
to the poor : his shocking, by preternatural earthquakes^ 
7* 



154 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



the consciences of the Philippian jailer and the two 
malefactors that suffered with him: his awakening 
Ananias, Sapphira, and thousands more by the wonders 
of the day of pentecost, when Lydia and others were 
called only in the common way : if you mean this by 
" distinguishing grace," we are agreed. For grace dis- 
played in as distinguishing a manner as it was toward 
Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida, greatly illustrates 
our Lord's doctrine : " Of him to whom little is given, 
little shall be required ; but much shall be required of 
them that have received much ;" the equality of God's 
way not consisting in giving to all men a like number 
of talents, any more than making them all archangels ; 
but in treating them all equally, according to the vari- 
ous editions of the everlasting gospel, or law of liberty ; 
and according to the good or bad uses they have made 
of their talents, whether they had few or many. 

To return to your grand objection : you suppose (and 
this is probably the ground of your mistake) that when 
a deliverance, or a divine favour, turns upon something 
which we may do, or leave undone, at our option, God 
is necessarily robbed of his glory. But a few queries 
will easily convince you of your mistake. When God 
had been merciful to Lot and his family, not looking 
back made all the difference between him and his wife; 
but does it follow that he claimed the honour of his nar- 
row escape 1 Looking at the brazen type of Christ made 
some Israelites differ from others that died of the bite 
of the fiery serpents ; but is this a sufficient reason to 
conclude that the healed men had not sense to distin- 
guish between primary and secondary causes, and 
that they ascribed to their looks the glory due to 
God for graciously contriving the means of their 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



155 



cure 7 One of your neighbours has hanged, and an- 
other has poisoned himself ; so that not hanging your- 
self, and taking wholesome food, has so far made the 
difference between you and them : but can you reason- 
ably infer that you do not live by divine bounty, and 
that I rob the Preserver of men of his glory, when I 
affirm that you shall surely die if you do not eat, or if 
you take poison 7 

Permit me to make you sensible of your mistake by 
one more illustration. An anticalvinist, who observes 
that God has suspended many of his blessings upon 
industry, diligently ploughs, sows, and weeds his 
field. A fatalist over the way, lest free grace should 
not have all the glory of his crop, does not turn* one 
clod, and expects seed to drop from the clouds into fur- 
rows made by an invisible plough on a certain day, 
which he calls " a day of God's power." When har- 
vest comes, the one has a crop of wheat, and the other 

* This is not spoken of pious Calvinists ; for some of them are 
remarkably diligent in good works. They are Solifidians by halves ; 
■ — in principle, but not in practice. Their works outshine their er- 
rors. I lay nothing to their charge but inattention, prejudice, and 
glaring inconsistency. I compare them to diligent, good-natured 
druggists, who, among many excellent remedies, sell sometimes 
arsenic. They would not for the world take it themselves, or poi- 
son their neighbours ; but yet they freely retail it, and in so doing 
they are inadvertently the cause of much mischief. Mr. Fulsome, 
for example, could tell which of our gospel ministers taught him 
that good works are dung, and have nothing to do with eternal sal- 
vation. He could inform us who lulled him asleep in his sins with 
the syren songs of "unconditional election," and "finished salva- 
tion, in the full extent of the word ;" that is, he could let us know 
who gave him his killing dose ; and numbers of Deists could tell us 
that a bare taste or smell of Calvinism has made them loathe the 
genuine doctrines of grace, just as tasting or smelling a tainted par- 
tridge has for ever turned some people's stomachs against partridge. 



156 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



a crop of weeds. Now, although industry alone has 
made the difference between the two fields, who is 
most likely to give God the glory of a crop, the Solifi- 
dian farmer who reaps thistles ; or the laborious hus- 
bandman who has joined works to his faith in divine 
Providence, and joyfully brings his sheaves home, say- 
ing, as St. Paul, " By divine bounty I have planted and 
Apollos has weeded, but God has given the increase, 
which is all in all V 



SECTION ill. 

SOME REFLECTIONS UPON THE UNREASONABLENESS OF 
THOSE WHO SCORN TO WORK WITH AN EYE TO THE 
REWARD WHICH GOD OFFERS TO EXCITE US TO OBE- 
DIENCE. 

Flattering myself that the preceding answers 
have removed the reader's prejudices, or confirmed him 
in his attachment to genuine free grace, I shall con- 
clude this essay by some reflections upon the pride or 
prejudices of those who scruple working with an eye to 
the rewards that God offers with a view to promote the 
obedience of faith. 

" If heaven, (say such mistaken persons,) if the en- 
joyment of God in glory be the reward of obedience, 
and if you work with an eye to that reward, you act 
from self, the basest of all motives. Love, and not 
self interest, sets us, true believers, upon action. We 
work from, gratitude and not for profit ; from life* 

* The reader is desired to observe that we recommend work- 
ing from life and gratitude, as well as our opponents. Life and 
thankfulness are two important springs of action, which we use as 
well as they. We maintain, that even those who " have a name to 
live, and are dead in trespasses and sins," cannot be saved without 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



157 



and not for life. To do good with an eye to a reward, 
though that reward should be a crown of life, is to act 
as a mercenary wretch, and not as a duteous child or a 
faithful servant." 

This specious error, zealously propagated by Moli- 
nos, Lady Guion, and her illustrious convert, Arch- 
bishop Fenelon, (though afterward renounced by him,) 
put a stop to a great revival of the power of godliness 
abroad in the last century ; and it has already struck a 
fatal blow at the late revival in these kingdoms. I 
reverence and love many that contend for this senti- 
ment ; but my regard for the truth overbalancing my 
respect for them, I think it ray duty to oppose their 
mistake, as a pernicious refinement of Satan trans- 
formed into an angel of light. I therefore attack it by 
the following arguments: — 

1, This doctrine makes us "wise above what is 
written." We read that hunger and want of bread 
brought back the prodigal son. His father knew it, 
but instead of treating him as a hired servant, he en- 
tertained him as a beloved child. 

2. It sets aside, at a stroke, a considerable part of the 
Bible, which consists in threatenings to deter evil work- 
ers, and in promises to encourage obedient believers : 
for if it be base to obey in order to obtain a promised 
reward, it is baser still to do it in order to avoid a threat- 

" strengthening the things that remain and are ready to die ;" and 
that thankfulness for being out of hell, and for having a day of sal- 
vation through Christ, should be strongly recommended to the chief 
of sinners. But thankfulness and life are not all the springs neces- 
sary, in our imperfect state, to move all the wheels of obedience ; 
and we dare no more exclude the other springs, because we have 
these two, than we dare cut off three of our fingers, because we 
have a little finger and a thumb. 



158 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ened punishment. Thus the precious grace of faith, 
so far as it is exercised about divine promises and 
threatenings, is indirectly made void. 

3. It decries " godly fear," a grand spring of action, 
and preservative of holiness in all free agents that are 
in a state of probation ; and by this mean it indirectly 
charges God with want of wisdom, for putting that 
spring in the breast of innocent man in paradise, and 
for perpetually working upon it in his word and by his 
Spirit, which St. Paul calls " the spirit of bondage unto 
fear;" because it helps us to believe the threatenings 
denounced against the workers of iniquity, and to fear 
lest ruin should overtake us if we continue in our 
sins. 

If ever there was a visible church without spot and 
wrinkle, it was when " the multitude of them that be- 
lieved were of one heart and of one soul." The 
worldly minded ness of Ananias and Sapphira was the 
first blemish of the Christian, as Achan : s covetousness 
had been of the Jewish church on this side Jordan. 
God made an example of them, as he had done of 
Achan ; and St. Luke observes upon it that u great fear 
came upon all the church;" even such fear as kept 
them from il falling after the same example of unbelief." 
Now were all the primitive Christians mean-spirited 
people, because they were filled with great fear of being 
punished as the first backsliders had been, if they apos- 
tatized 3 Is it a reproach to righteous Noah, that " be- 
ing moved with fear he prepared an ark for the saving 
of his house ?" And did our Lord legalize the gospel, 
when " he began to say to his disciples first of all, &c, 
I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that 
kill the body, &c. ; but fear him, who, after he hath 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



159 



killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto 
you, fear him?" Does this mean, "Be mercenary: 
yea, I say unto you, be mercenary?" 

4. Hope has a particular, necessary reference to 
promises and good things to come. Excellent things 
are spoken of that grace. If St. Paul says, " Ye are 
saved through faith," he says, also, " We are saved 
by hope." Hence St. Peter observes, that " exceeding 
great promises are given to us, that we might be par- 
takers of the divine nature :" and St. John declares, 
"Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth him- 
self even as God is pure." Now hope never stirs, but 
in order to obtain good things in view : a motive this 
which our gospel refiners represent as illiberal and base. 
Their scheme therefore directly tends to ridicule and 
suppress the capital, Christian grace, which faith guards 
on the left hand, and charity on the right. 

5. Their errors spring from a false conclusion. Be- 
cause it is mean to relieve a beggar with an eye to a 
reward from himj they infer that it is mean to do a 
good work with an eye to a reward from God ; not con- 
sidering that a beggar promises nothing, and can give 
nothing valuable ; whereas the Parent of good pro- 
mises and can give "eternal life to them that obey 
him." Their inference is then just as absurd as the 
following argument : " I ought not to set my heart upon 
an earthly, inferior, transitory good ; therefore I must 
not set it upon the chief, heavenly, permanent good. 
It is foolish to shoot at a wrong mark ; therefore I must 
not shoot at the right : I must not aim at the very mark 
which God himself has set up for me ultimately to level 
all my actions at, next to his own glory, viz., the en- 
joyment of himself, the light of his countenance, the 



160 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



smiles of his open face, which make the heaven of 
heavens." 

6. God says to Abraham, and in him to all believers, 
" I am thy exceeding great reward." Hence it follows, 
that the higher we rise in holiness and obedience, the 
nearer we shall be "admitted to the throne, and the fuller 
enjoyment we shall have of our God and Saviour, our 
reward and re warder. Therefore, to overlook divine 
rewards, is to overlook God himself, who is " our great 
reward;" and to slight "the life to come," of which 
" godliness has the promise." 

7. The error I oppose can be put in a still stronger 
light. Not to strive to obtain our great reward in full, 
amounts to saying, ' : Lord, thou art beneath my aim 
and pursuits : I can do without thee, or without so 
much of thee. I will not bestir myself, and do one 
thing to obtain either the fruition, or a fuller enjoyment 
of thy adorable self." An illustration or two, short as 
they fall of the thing illustrated, may help us to see 
the great impropriety of such conduct. If the king 
offered to give all officers, who would distinguish them- 
selves in the field, his hand to kiss, and a commission 
in his guards, that he might have them near his per- 
son ; would not military gentlemen defeat the intention 
of this gracious offer, and betray a peculiar degree of 
indifference for his majesty, if in the day of battle they 
would not strike one blow more on account of the royal 
promise ? 

Again : when David asked, What shall be done to 
him that killeth the giant? and when he was in- 
formed that Saul would give him his daughter in mar- 
riage ; would the young shepherd have showed his 
regard for the princess, or respect for the monarch, if he 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



161 



had said, " I am above minding rewards : what I do, I 
do freely : I scorn acting from so base a motive as a 
desire to secure the hand of the princess, and the hon- 
our of being the king's son-in-law ?" Could any thing 
have been ruder and more haughty than such a 
speech ? And yet, O see what evangelical refinements 
have done for us ! We, who are infinitely less before 
God than David was before King Saul ; — we, worms 
of a day, are so blinded by prejudice, as to think it be- 
neath us to mind the offers of the King of kings, or to 
strive for the rewards of the Lord of lords. 

"Wo to him that striveth [in generosity] with his 
Maker ! Let the potsherds strive thus with the pot- 
sherds of the earth : [but let not] the clay say to him 
that fashioneth it," " What doest thou when thou stirrest 
me up to good works by the promise of thy rewards? 
Surely, Lord, thou forgettest that the nobleness of my 
mind, and my doctrine of finished salvation, make me 
above running for a reward, though it should be for a 
life of glory and thyself. Whatever I do at thy com- 
mand, I am determined not to demean myself ; I will 
do it as Araunah, like a king." What depths of Anti- 
nomian pride may be hid under the covering of our 
voluntary humility ! 

8. The Calvinists of the last century, in their lucid 
intervals, saw the absolute necessity of working for 
heaven and heavenly rewards. We have a good prac- 
tical discourse of J. Bunyan upon these words, " So run 
that you may obtain." The burden of it is, "If you 
will have a heaven, you must run for it." Whence he 
calls his sermon, " The Heavenly Footman ;" and 
Matthew Mead,* a staunch Calvinist, in his treatise on 

* As a proof of his being sound in the doctrines of Calvinistic 



162 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



The Good of Early Obedience., (p. 429,) says, with 
great truth, " Maintain a holy, filial fear of God. This 
is an excellent preservative against apostacy. ' By the 
fear of the Lord men depart from evil,' says Solomon, 
and he tells you, ' The fear of the Lord is the fountain 
of life, whereby men depart from the snares of death 
and backsliding from Christ is one of the great snares 
of death. Think much of the day of recompense, and 
of the glorious reward of perseverance in that day: 
c Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a 
crown of life.' It is not those that begin well, but those 
who end well, that receive the crown. It is not mer- 
cenary service to quicken ourselves to obedience by the 
hope of a recompense. Omnis amor mercedis non 
est tnercenarius, fyc. David said, 'I have hoped 
for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.' He 
encouraged himself to duty by the hope of glory, &c. 

grace and confusion, I present the reader with the following pas- 
sage, taken from the same book, printed in London, 1683, (p. 307 :) 
" A believer is under the law for conduct, but not for judgment, &c. 
It is the guide of his path, but not the judge of his state. The be- 
liever is bound to obey it, but not to stand or fall by it." That is, 
in plain English, he should obey it, but his disobedience will never 
bring him under condemnation, and hinder him to stand in judg- 
ment. " It is a rule of life, &c, and therefore it obliges believers as 
much as others, though upon other motives, &c. : for they are not 
to expect life or favour from it, nor fear the depth and rigour that 
comes by it. The law has no power to justify a believer, or con- 
demn him, and therefore can be no rule to try his state by." In 
flat opposition to the general tenor of the Scriptures, thus summed 
up by St. John : " In this," namely, committing or not committing 
sin, "the children of God are manifest, and the children of the 
devil." What this author says is true, if it be understood of the 
Adamic law of innocence ; but if it be extended to St. Paul's law 
of Christ, and to St. James' law of liberty, it is one of the danger- 
ous tenets that support the chair of the Antinomian," man of sin." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



163 



Hope of that glorious recompense is of great service to 
quicken us to perseverance. And to the same end does 
the apostle urge it : 'Be unmoveable, always abound- 
ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know 
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' " 

9. When voluntary humility has made us wise 
above w T hat is written by the apostles and by our fore- 
fathers, it will make us look down with contempt from 
the top of our fancied orthodoxy upon the motives by 
which the prophets took up their cross, to serve God 
and their generation. When St. Paul enumerates the 
works of Moses, he traces them back to their noble 
principle, faith working by a w r ell ordered self love : (a 
love this which is inseparable from the love of God and 
man ; the law of liberty binding us to love our neigh- 
bour as ourselves, and God above ourselves.) "He 
chose," says the apostle, " to suffer affliction with the 
people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of 
sin," <fec. But why? Because he was above looking 
at the prize? Just the reverse. Because "he had 
respect to the recompense of reward," Heb. xi, 26. 

10. In the next chapter the apostle bids us to take 
Christ himself for our pattern in the very thing which 
our gospel refiners call mercenary and base : " Looking 
to Jesus," say? he, " who, for the joy that was set before 
him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set 
down at the right hand of the throne of God."' The 
noble reward this, with w 7 hich his mediatorial obedience 
was crowned, as appears from these words : " He be- 
came obedient unto death; wherefore God also hath 
highly exalted him." If the scheme of those who refine 
the ancient gospel appears to me in a peculiarly unfa- 
vourable light, it is when I see them impose upon the 



164 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



injudicious admirers of un scriptural humility, and make 
the simple believe that they do God service when they 
indirectly represent Christ's obedience unto death as 
imperfect, and him as mercenary, actuated by a motive 
unworthy of a child of God. He says, u Every one 
that is perfect shall be as his master but we (such is 
our consistency !) loudly decry perfection, and yet pre- 
tend to a higher degree of it than our Lord and Master ; 
for he was not above " enduring the cross [for the joy of] 
sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God 
but we are so exquisitely perfect that we will work 
gratis. It is mercenary, it is beneath us to work for 
glory ! 

11. I fear this contempt is by some indirectly poured 
upon tbe Lord of glory to extol the spurious free grace 
which is sister to free wrath ; and to persuade the simple 
that works have nothing to do with our final justifica- 
tion and eternal salvation before God." A dogma this, 
which is as contrary to reason as it is to Scripture and 
moralitj^; it being a monstrous imposition upon the 
credulity of Protestants to assert that works, which God 
himself will reward with final justification and eternal 
salvation, have nothing to do with that justification and 
that salvation before him : just as if the thing rewarded 
had nothing to do with its reward before the rewarder ! 

12. The most rigid Calvinists allow that St. Paul is 
truly evangelical : but which of the sacred writers ever 
spoke greater things of the reward ableness of works 
than he? What can be plainer, what stronger than 
these words, which I must quote till the} T are minded : 
M Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, <fcc, 
knowing [i. e., considering] that of the Lord ye shall 
receive the reward of the inheritance. But he that 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



165 



doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath 
done ; for there is no respect of persons," Col. iii, 23, 
&c. Again : " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap : for he that soweth to his flesh, shall of 
the flesh reap perdition * but he that soweth to the 
Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life," Gal. 
vi, 7, 8. 

From those scriptures it is evident that doing good or 
bad works is like sowing good or bad seed ; and that 
going to heaven or hell is like gathering what we have 
sown. Now, as it is the madness of unbelievers to 
sow wickedness, and to expect a crop of happiness and 
glory ; so it is the wisdom of believers to sow righteous- 
ness, expecting to " reap in due time if they faint not." 
Nor do we act reasonably, if we do not sow more or less 
with an eye to reaping : for if reaping be quite out of 
the question with Protestants, they may as wisely sow 
chaff on a fallow as corn in a ploughed field. Hence I 
conclude that a believer may obey, and that, if he be 
judicious, he will obey, looking both to Jesus and to the 
rewards of obedience; and that the more we can fix 
the eye of his faith upon his " exceeding great reward, 
and his great recompense of reward," the more he will 
" abound in the work of faith, the patience of hope, and 
the labour of love." 

13. St. Paul's conduct with respect to rewards was 
perfectly consistent with his doctrine. I have already 
observed, he wrote to the Corinthians, that he so " ran 
and so fought as to obtain an incorruptible crown ;" 
and it is well known that in the Olympic games, to 
which he alludes, all ran or fought with an eye to a 
prize, a reward, or a crown. But in his Epistle to the 
Philippians he goes still farther ; for he represents his 



166 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



running for a crown of life, his pressing after rewards 
of grace and glory, as the whole of his business. His 
words are remarkable : " This one thing I do ; forget- 
ting those things which are behind, and reaching forth 
unto those things which are before, I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." And when he had just run his race out, he 
wrote to Timothy, " I have finished my course ; hence- 
forth there is laid up for me [as for a conqueror] a crown 
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day" — the great day of retribu- 
tion. As for St. John, when he was perfected in love, 
we find him as " mercenary" as St. Paul ; for he writes 
to the elect lady, and to her believing children : " Look 
to yourselves, that we lose not those things w T hich we 
have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." 

14. When I read such scriptures, I wonder at those 
who are so wrapt up in the pernicious notion that we 
ought not to work* for a life of glory, as to overlook 
even the " crown of life," with which God will reward 
those who are " faithful unto death." And I am asto- 
nished at the remains of my own unbelief, which pre- 
vent my being always ravished with admiration at the 
thought of the rewards offered to fire my soul into 

* Truth is so great that it sometimes prevails over those that are 
prejudiced against it. I have observed that Dr. Crisp himself, in a 
happy moment, bore a noble testimony to undefiled religion. Take 
another instance of it. In the volume of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield's 
sermons, taken in short hand, and published by Gurney, (p. 119,) 
that great preacher says : " First we must work for spiritual life, 
afterward from it." And (pages 153, 154) he declares : " There 
are numbers of poor that are ready to perish ; and if you drop some- 
thing to them in love, God will take care to repay you when you 
come to judgment." I find but one fault with this doctrine. The 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



167 



seraphic obedience. An idle country fellow, who runs 
at the wakes for a wretched prize, labours harder in his 
sportive race than, I fear, I do yet in some of my prayers 
and sermons. A sportsman, for the pitiful honour of 
coming in at the death of a fox, toils more than most 
professors do in the pursuit of their corruptions. How 
ought confusion to cover our faces ! Let those that 
refine the gospel glory in their shame. Let each of 
them say, " I thank thee, O God, that I am not like a 
Papist, or .like that Arminian, who looks at the rewards 
which thou hast promised, I deny myself, and take up 
my cross, without thinking of the joy and rewards set 
before me," &c. For my part, I desire to humble my- 
self before God, for having so long overlooked the " ex- 
ceeding great reward," and the " crown of life," promised 
to them that obey him ; and my thoughts shall be ex- 
pressed in such words as these : — 

" Gracious Lord, if * he that receiveth a prophet in 
the name of a prophet shall have a prophet's reward 
if 'our light affliction,' when it is patiently endured, 
1 worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory :' if thou hast said, 1 Do good and lend, 
hoping for nothing again, [from man,] and your reward 
shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the 
Highest:' if thou animatest those who are persecuted 

first of those propositions does not guard free grace so well as Mr. 
Wesley's Minutes do. We should always intimate that there is no 
working for a life of glory, or for a more abundant life of grace, - 
but from an initial life of grace, freely given to us in Christ before 
any working of our own. This I mention, not to prejudice the reader 
against Mr. Whitefield, but to show that I am not so prejudiced in 
favour of works as not to see when even a Whitefield, in an un- 
guarded expression, leans toward them to the disparagement of free 
grace. 



168 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



for righteousness' sake, by this promissory exhortation, 
c Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward 
in heaven :' nay. if a cup of cold water only, given in 
thy name, 1 shall in no wise lose its reward ;' and if the 
least of thy rewards is a smile of approbation ; let me be 
ready to go round the world, shouldst thou call me to it, 
that I may obtain such a recompense. 

11 Since thou hast so closely connected holiness and 
happiness, my duty and thy favours, 1 let no man be- 
guile me of my reward in a voluntary humility/ nor 
suffer me to be f carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine by the sleight of men,' and 1 cunning craftiness, 
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.' And 4 whatsoever 
my hand fmdeth to do, help me to do it with all my 
might ;' not only lest I lose my reward, but also lest I 
have not ' a full reward ;' lest I lose a beam of the light 
of thy countenance, or a degree of that peculiar likeness 
and nearness to thee with which thou wilt recompense 
those who excel in virtue. So shall I equally avoid the 
delusion of the Pharisees, who expect heaven through 
their faithless works; and the error of Antinomians, 
who hope to enter into thy glory without the passport 
of the works of faith. 

" And now, Lord, if thy servant has found favour in 
thy sight, permit him to urge another request ; so far 
as thy wisdom, and the laws by which thy free grace 
works upon free agents will permit, incline the minds 
of Papists and Protestants to receive the truth as it is 
in Jesus. Let not especially this plain testimony, borne 
to the many great promises which thou hast made, and 
to the astonishing rewards which thou ofTerest them 
that work righteousness, be rejected by my Calvinist 
brethren. Keep them from fighting against thy good- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



169 



ness, and despising their own mercies, under pretence 
of righting against ' Arrainian errors, 5 and despising 
{ Pelagian Checks to the Gospel' And make them 
sensible that it is absurd to decry in word the pope's 
pretensions to infallibility, if, by an obstinate refusal to 
' review the whole affair,' and to weigh their supposed 
orthodoxy in the balances of reason and revelation, 
they, in fact, pretend to be infallible themselves ; and 
thus, instead of one Catholic pontiff, set up ten thou- 
sand Protestant popes. 

" Thou knowest, Lord, that many of them love thee ; 
and that, though they disgrace thy gospel by their doc- 
trinal peculiarities, they adorn it by their godly conver- 
sation. O endue them with more love to their remon- 
strant brethren ! Give them and me that charity which 
' behaveth not itself unseemly,' which ' rejoiceth not in' 
a favourite error, ' but rejoiceth in the truth,' even when 
it is advanced by our opponents. Thou seest, that if 
they decry true holiness and good works as ' dung and 
dross,' it is chiefly for fear thy glory should be obscured 
by our obedience. Error, transformed into an angel of 
light, has deceived them, and they think to do thee 
service by propagating the deception. O gracious God, 
pardon them this wrong. They 1 do it ignorantly in 
unbelief ;' therefore seal not up their mistake with the 
seal of thy wrath. Let them yet ' know the truth,' 
and let the truth enlarge their hearts, and 1 make them 
free' from the notion that thou art not 1 loving to every 
man' during ' the day of salvation,' and that there is 
neither mercy nor Saviour for the most of their neigh- 
bours, even during 1 the accepted time.' 

" Above all, Lord, if they cannot defend their mis- 
takes, either by argument or by Scripture quoted ac- 

8 



170 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



cording to the context and the obvious tenour of thy 
sacred oracles, give them more wisdom than to expose 
any longer the Protestant religion, which they think to 
defend ; and more piety than to make the men of the 
world abhor thy gospel and blaspheme thy name, as 
free thinkers are daily tempted to do, when they see 
that those who pretend to 1 exalt thee' most are, of all 
Protestants, the most ready to disarm thy gospel of its 
sanctions ; to turn thy judicial sentences into frivolous 
descriptions ; to overlook the dictates of reason and 
good nature ; and to make the press groan under illo- 
gical assertions and personal abuse ! 

" Let thy servant speak once more : thou knowest, 
O Lord, that thy power being my helper, I would choose 
to die rather than wilfully to depreciate that grace, that 
free grace of thine which has so long kept me out of 
hell, and daily gives me sweet foretastes of heaven. 
And now, let not readers of a Pharisaic turn mistake 
what I have advanced in honour of the works of faith, 
and by that mean build themselves up in their self- 
righteous delusion and destructive contempt of thy 
merits : help them to consider, that if our works are 
reward able, it is because thy free grace makes them so ; 
thy Father having mercifully accepted our persons for 
thy sake, thy Holy Spirit having gently helped our in- 
firmities, thy precious blood having fully atoned for our 
sins and imperfections, thy incessant intercession still 
keeping the way to the throne of grace open for us and 
our poor performances. Suffer not one of the sons of 
virtuous pride, into whose hands these sheets may fall, 
to forget that thou hast annexed ' the reward of the 
inheritance' to the assemblage of the works of faith, or 
to 1 patient continuance in well doing,' and not to one 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



171 



or two splendid works of hypocrisy done just to serve a 
worldly turn, or to bribe a disturbed, clamorous con- 
science; and enable them so to feel the need of thy 
pardon for past transgression, and of thy power for 
future obedience, that, as the chased hart panteth after 
the water brooks, so their awakened souls may long 
after Christ, in whom the penitent find inexhaustible 
springs of righteousness and strength ; and to whom, 
with thee and thy eternal Spirit, be for ever ascribed 
praise, honour, and glory, both in heaven and upon 
earth — praise for the wonders of general redemption, 
and for the innumerable displays of thy free grace un- 
stained by free wrath — honour for bestowing the gra- 
cious reward of a heavenly salvation upon all believers 
that make their election sure c by patient continuance 
in well doing' — and glory for inflicting the just punish- 
ment of infernal damnation upon all that neglect so 
great salvation, and to the end of the accepted time 
dare thy vengeance by obstinate continuance in ill 
doing." 



CHAPTER XI. 
AN ESSAY ON TRUTH. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Exceedingly sorry should I be if the testimony 
which I have borne to the necessity of good works 
caused any of my readers to do the worst of bad works, 
that is, to neglect believing, and to depend upon some 
of the external, faithless performances which conceited 
Pharisees call " good works ;" and by which they ab- 



172 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



surdly think to make amends for their sins, to purchase 
the divine favour, to set aside God's mercy, and to 
supersede Christ's atoning blood. Therefore, lest some 
unwary souls, going from one extreme to the other, 
should so unfortunately avoid Antinomianism as to run 
upon the rocks which are rendered famous by the de- 
struction of the Pharisees, I shall once more vindicate 
the fundamental anti-Pharisaic doctrine of salvation by 
faith : I say once wore, because I have already done it 
in my guarded sermon. And to the scriptures, articles, 
and arguments produced in that piece, I shall now add 
rational and yet Scriptural observations, which, together 
with appeals to matter of fact, will, I hope, soften the 
prejudices of judicious moralists against the doctrine of 
faith, and reconcile considerate Solifidians to the doc- 
trine of works. In order to this, I design in general to 
prove that true faith is the only plant w T hich can pos- 
sibly bear good works ; that it loses its operative nature, 
and dies, when it produces them not ; and that it as 
much surpasses good works in importance as the mo- 
tion of the heart does all other bodily motions. Inquire 
we first into the nature and ground of saving faith. 



SECTION I. 

A PLAIN DEFINITION OF SAVING FAITH, HOW BELIEVING 
IS THE GIFT OF GOD, AND WHETHER IT IS IN OUR 
POWER TO BELIEVE. 

What is faith? It is believing heartily. What is 
saving faith? I dare not say that it is "believing 
heartily my sins are forgiven me for Christ's sake ;" for 
if I live in sin, that belief is a destructive conceit, and 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



173 



not saving faith. Neither dare I say that "saving faith 
is only a sure trust and confidence that Christ loved me 3 
and gave himself for me ;"* for, if I did, I should damn 
almost all mankind for four thousand years. Such 
definitions of saving faith are, I fear, too narrow to be 
just, and too unguarded to keep out Solifidianism. A 
comparison may convince my readers of it. If they 
desired me to define man, and I said, " Man is a ra- 
tional animal that lived in France in 1774," would they 
not ask me whether I suppose all the rational animals 
that lived on this side the English Channel in 1773 
were brutes? And if you desired to know what I 
mean by saving faith, and I replied, It is a supernatu- 
ral belief that Christ has actually atoned for my sins 
upon the cross : would you not ask me whether Abra- 
ham, the father of the faithful, who would have be- 
lieved a lie if he had believed this, had only damning 
faith? 

To avoid therefore such mistakes ; to contradict no 
scriptures ; to put no black mark of damnation upon 
any man, that in any nation " fears God and works 
righteousness;" to leave no room for Solifidianism-, and 
to present the reader with a definition of faith adequate 
to " the everlasting gospel," I would choose to say, that 
"justifying or saving faith is believing the saving truth 
with the heart unto interna], and [as we have opportu- 
nity] unto external righteousness, according to our light 

* When the Church of England and Mr. Wesley give us particu- 
lar definitions of faith, it is plain that they consider it according to 
the Christian dispensation ; the privileges of which must be princi- 
pally insisted upon among Christians ; and that our Church and Mr. 
Wesley guard faith against Antinomianism, is evident from their 
maintaining, as well as St. Paul, that by bad works we lose a good 
conscience, and " make shipwreck of the faith." 



174 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

and dispensation." To St. Paul's words, Rom. x, 10, 1 
add the epithets internal and external, in order to ex- 
clude, according to 1 John iii, 7, 8, the filthy imputation 
under which fallen believers may, if we credit the An- 
tinomians, commit internal and external adultery, men- 
tal and bodily murder, without the least reasonable 
fear of endangering their faith, their interest in God's 
favour, and their inamissible title to the throne of 
glory. 

But " how is faith the gift of God ?" Some persons 
think that faith is as much out of our power as the 
lightning that shoots from a distant cloud ; they sup- 
pose that God drives sinners to the fountain of Christ's 
blood as irresistibly as the infernal legion drove the 
herd of swine into the sea of Galilee ; and that a man 
is as passive in the first act of faith as Jonah was in 
the act of the fish, which cast him upon the shore. 
Hence the absurd plea of many who lay fast hold on 
the horns of the devil's altar, unbelief, and cry out, "We 
can no more believe than we can make a world." 

I call this an absurd plea for several reasons: 
(1.) It supposes that when " God commands all men 
everywhere to repent and to believe the gospel," he 
commands them to do what is as impossible to them as 
the making of a new world. (2.) It supposes that the 
terms of the covenant of grace are much harder than 
the terms of the covenant of works. For the old cove- 
nant required only perfect human obedience : but the 
new covenant requires of us the work of an almighty 
God, i. e., believing; a work this which, upon the 
scheme I oppose, is as impossible to us as the creation 
of a world, in which we can never have a hand. 
(3.) It supposes that the promise of salvation being 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



175 



suspended upon believing, a thing as impracticable to 
us as the making of a new world, we shall as infallibly 
be damned if God do not believe for us, as we should 
be if we were required to make a world on pain of 
damnation, and God would not make it in our place. 
(4.) It supposes that believing is a work which belongs 
to God alone : for no man in his senses can doubt but 
creating a world, or its tantamount, believing, is a work 
which none but God can manage. (5.) It supposes 
that (if he, who believeth not the divine record, makes 
God a liar, and shall be damned) whenever unbe- 
lievers are called upon to believe, and God refuses 
them the power to do it, he as much forces them to make 
him a liar and to be damned, as the king would force 
me to give him the lie, and to be hanged, if he put me 
in circumstances where I could have no chance of 
avoiding that crime and punishment, but by submitting 
to the alternative of creating a world. (6.) It supposes 
that when Christ "marvelled at the unbelief of the 
Jews," he showed as little wisdom as I should were I to 
marvel at a man for not creating three worlds as 
quickly as a believer can say the three creeds. (7.) That 
when Christ reproved his disciples for their unbelief he 
acted more unreasonably than if he had rebuked them 
for not adding a new star to every constellation in 
heaven. (8.) That to exhort people to " continue in 
the faith," is to exhort them to something as difficult as 
to continue creating worlds. And, lastly, that when 
Christ fixes our damnation upon unbelief, (see Mark xvi, 
16, and John iii, 18,) he acts far more tyrannically than 
the king would do if he issued out a proclamation in- 
forming all his subjects that whosoever shall not, by 
such a time, raise a new island within the British seas, 



176 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



shall be infallibly put to the most painful and lingering 
death. 

Having thus exposed the erroneous sense in which 
some people suppose that " faith is the gift of God," I 
beg leave to mention in what sense it appears to me to 
be so. Believing is the gift of God's grace, as culti- 
vating the root of a rare flower given you, or raising a 
crop of corn in your field, is the gift of God's provi- 
dence. Believing is the gift of the God of grace, as 
breathing, moving, and eating, are the gifts of the God 
of nature. He gives me lungs and air that I may 
breathe : he gives me life and muscles that I may 
move : he bestows upon me food, and a mouth, that I 
may eat : and when I have no stomach, he gives me 
common sense to see I must die, or force myself to take 
some nourishment or some medicine. But he neither 
breathes, moves, nor eats for me ; nay, when I think 
proper, I can accelerate my breathing, motion, and eat- 
ing ; and if I please I may even fast, lie down, or hang 
myself, and by that mean put an end to my eating, 
moving, and breathing. Once more : faith is the gift 
of God to believers, as sight is to you. The Parent of 
good freely gives you the light of the sun, and organs 
proper to receive it : he places you in a world where 
that light visits you daily : he apprizes you that sight 
is conducive to your safety, pleasure, and profit ; and 
every thing around you bids you use your eyes and 
see : nevertheless, you may not only drop your curtains, 
and extinguish your candle, but close your eyes also. 
This is exactly the case with regard to faith. Free 
grace removes (in part) the total blindness which Ad- 
am's fall brought upon us : free grace gently sends us 
some beams of truth, which is the light of the " Son 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



177 



of righteousness ft it disposes the eyes of our under- 
standing to see those beams : it excites us various ways 
to welcome them ; it blesses us with many, perhaps 
with all the means of faith, such as opportunities to 
hear, read, inquire ; and power to consider, assent, con- 
sent, resolve, and re-resolve to believe the truth. But, 
after all, believing is as much our own act as seeing. 
We may, nay, in general do suspend, or omit the act of 
faith ; especially when that act is not yet become 
habitual, and when the glaring light that sometimes 
accompanies the revelation of the truth is abated. 
Nay, we may imitate Pharaoh, Judas, and all reprobates; 
we may do by the eye of our faith what some report 
that Democritus did by his bodily eyes. Being tired 
of seeing the follies of mankind, to rid himself of that, 
disagreeable sight he put his eyes out. We may be so 
averse from " the light which enlightens every man that 
comes into the world ;" we may so dread it because our 
works are evil, as to exemplify, like the Pharisees, such 
awful declarations as these: — "Their eyes have they 
closed, lest they should see, &c. : wherefore God gave 
them up to a reprobate mind," and " they were blinded." 

When St. Paul says that Christians " believe accord- 
ing to the working of God's mighty power, which he 
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead," 
he chiefly alludes to the resurrection of Christ, and the 
outpouring of the Holy Ghost; the former of these 
wonders being the great ground and object of the 
Christian faith, and the latter displaying the great pri- 
vilege of the Christian dispensation. To suppose, there- 
fore, that nobody savingly believes who does not believe 
according to an actual, overwhelming display of God's 
almighty power', is as unscriptural as to maintain that 
8* 



178 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



God's people no longer believe than he actually repeats 
the wonders of Easter day, and of the day of pentecost. 
Is it not clear that the apostle had no such notions 
when he wrote to the Corinthians ? "I declare unto 
you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which you 
have received ; wherein ye stand ; by which also ye 
are saved, if ye keep in memory [if ye hold fast, as the 
original means] what I preached unto you, unless ye 
have believed iu vain. For I declared unto you, &c., 
that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and 
that he rose again, according to the Scriptures, &c, so 
we preach, and so ye believed." Again : how plain is 
the account that our Lord and his forerunner give us 
of faith and unbelief ! " Verily we speak what we do 
know, and testify what we have seen, and ye receive 
not our witness. What he [Christ] hath seen and 
heard, that he testifieth, and no man [comparatively] 
receiveth his testimony ; but he that hath received his 
testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." 

Two things have chiefly given room to our mistakes 
respecting the strange impossibility of believing. The 
first is our confounding the truths which characterize 
the several gospel dispensations. We see, for example, 
that a poor, besotted drunkard, an overreaching, greedy 
tradesman, a rich, skeptical epicure, and a proud, ambi- 
tious courtier, have no more taste for " the gospel of 
Christ" than a horse and a mule have for the high- 
seasoned dishes that crown a royal table. An immense 
gulf is fixed between them and the Christian faith. In 
their present state they can no more believe " with their 
heart unto righteousness in Christ," than an unborn 
infant can become a man without passing through in- 
fancy and youth. But, although they cannot yet be- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



179 



lieve savingly in Christ, may they not believe in God 
according to the import of our Lord's words : 11 Ye be- 
lieve in God, believe also in me ?" If the Pharisees 
could not believe in Christ, it was not because God 
never gave them a power equal to that which created 
the world ; but because they were practical Atheists, 
who actually rejected the morning light of the Jewish 
dispensation, and by that mean absolutely unfitted 
themselves for the meridian light of the Christian dis- 
pensation. This is evident from our Lord's own words : 
11 1 know you, that ye have not the love of God [or a 
regard for God] in you. I come in my Father's name, 
and ye receive me not, [though ye might do it ; for] if 
another shall come in his own name, him ye will re- 
ceive. How can ye believe, who receive honour one of 
another? <fcc. There is one that accuseth you, even 
Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, 
[and submitted to his dispensation,] ye would have 
believed me, [and submitted to] my gospel. But if ye 
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my 
words?" 

The second cause of our mistake about the impossi- 
bility of believing now, is the confounding of faith with 
its fruits and rewards; which naturally leads us to 
think that we cannot believe, or that our faith is vain, 
till those rewards and fruits appear. But is not this 
being ingenious to make the worst of things? Had 
Abraham no faith in God's promise till Isaac was born ? 
Was Sarah a damnable unbeliever till she felt the long- 
expected fruit of her womb stir there? Had the woman 
of Canaan no faith till our Lord granted her request, 
and cried out, " O woman, great is thy faith, let it be 
done unto thee even as thou wilt ?" Was the centurion 



180 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



an infidel till Christ " marvelled at his faith," and dc 
clared " he had not found such faith, no, not in Israel?" 
Was Peter faithless till his Master said, " Blessed ait 
thou, Simon Barjona," &c. ? Did the weeping penitent 
begin to believe only when Christ said to her, " Go in 
peace, thy faith hath saved thee?" And had the apostles 
no faith in " the promise of the Father," till their heads 
were actually crowned with celestial fire ? Should we 
not distinguish between our sealing the truth of our 
dispensation with the seal of our faith, according to our 
present light and ability ; and God's sealing the truth 
of our faith with the seal of his power, or actually re- 
warding us by the grant of some eminent and uncom- 
mon blessing ? To believe is our part ; to make " signs 
follow them that believe" is God's part ; and because 
we can no more do God's part than we can make a 
world, is it agreeable either to Scripture or reason to 
conclude that doing our part is equally difficult ? Can 
you find one single instance in the Scriptures of a soul 
willing to believe, and absolutely unable to do it ? From 
these two scriptures, " Lord, increase our faith ; — Lord, 
I believe, help thou my unbelief," can you justly infer 
that the praying disciples and the distressed father had 
no power to believe ? Do not their words evidence just 
the contrary? -That we cannot believe, any more than 
we can eat, without the help and power of God, is what 
we are all agreed upon ; but does this in the least prove 
that the help and power by which we believe is as far 
out of the reach of willing souls as the help and power 
to make a world ? 

Such scriptures as these : " Unto you it is given to 
believe : a man can receive nothing, except it be given 
him from above : no man can come unto me except the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



181 



Father draw him : every good gift [and of course that 
of faith] cometh from the Father of lights." Such 
scriptures, I say, secure, indeed, the honour of free 
grace, but do not destroy the power of free agency. 
To us that freely believe in a holy, righteous God, it is 
given freely to believe in a gracious, bleeding Saviour ; 
because the sick alone " have need of a physician 
and none but those who believe in God can see the 
need of an advocate with him. But ought we from 
hence to conclude that our unbelieving neighbours are 
necessarily debarred from " believing in God V When 
our Lord said to the unbelieving Jews that they could 
not believe in him, did he not speak of a moral impo- 
tency — an impotency of their own making 1 I ask it 
again, If they obstinately resisted the light of their in- 
ferior dispensation ; if they were none of Christ's Jewish 
sheep, how could they be his Christian sheep ? If an 
obstinate boy sets himself against learning the letters, 
how can he ever learn to read? If a stubborn Jew 
stiffly opposes the law of Moses, how can he submit to 
the law of Christ? Is it not strange that some good 
people should leap into reprobation, rather than admit 
so obvious a solution of this little difficulty ? 

From the above-mentioned texts we have, then, no 
more reason to infer that God forces believers to believe, 
or that he believes for them, than to conclude that God 
constrains diligent tradesmen to get money, or gets it 
for them, because it is said, " We are not sufficient to 
think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is 
of God — who gives us all things richly to enjoy. Re- 
member the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee 
power to get wealth." 

From the whole I conclude, that so long as (£ the ao 



182 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



cepted time" and " the day of salvation" continue, all 
sinners who have not yet finally hardened themselves 
may, day and night, (through the help and power of 
the general light of Christ's " saving grace," mentioned 
John i, 9, and Tit. ii, 11,) receive some truth belonging 
to the everlasting gospel ; though it should be only this : 
" There is a God, who willrcall us to an account for our 
sins, and who spares us to break them off by repent- 
ance." And their cordial believing of this truth would 
make way for their receiving the higher truths that 
stand between them and the top of the mysterious 
ladder of truth. I grant it is impossible they should 
leap at once to the middle, much less to the highest 
round of the ladder : but if the foot of it is upon earth, 
in the very nature of things the lowest step is within 
their reach, and, by laying hold on it, they may go on 
"from faith to, faith" till they stand firm even in the 
Christian faith, if distinguishing grace has elected them 
to hear the Christian gospel. The most sudden con- 
versions imply this gradual transition. As in the very 
nature of things, when " the Spirit of the Lord caught 
aw T ay Philip" from the eunuch, and transported him to 
Azotus, he made Philip's body rapidly measure all (he 
distance between the wilderness of Gaza and Azotus : 
so, when he helped the Philippian jailer from the gates 
of hell to the gates of heaven in one night, he made 
him rapidly pass through the fear of God, the dread of 
his justice, and the pangs of penitential desires after 
salvation, before he entered into the joyous rest that 
remains for those that heartily believe in Christ. Nor 
is this quick, though gradual transition from midnight 
darkness to noon-day light an unintelligible mystery, 
since we are witnesses of a similar event every revolving 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



183 



day. The vegetable and the animal world help us 
likewise to understand the nature of sudden conver- 
sions. Every philosopher knows that a mushroom passes 
through almost as many stages of the vegetative life in 
six hours as an oak does in two hundred years: and 
those animalculse that frisk into life in the morning of 
a summer's day, propagate their species at noon, are old 
at four o'clock, and dead at six, measure the length of 
animal life as really as Methusaleh did his millennium. 



SECTION II. 

SAVING TRUTH IS THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH. WHAT 
TRUTH IS, AND WHAT GREAT THINGS ARE SPOKEN OF IT. 
OUR SALVATION TURNS UPON IT. 

It appears by the preceding section that saving 
truth is the ground and object of saving faith ; 
but " what is truth ?" This is the awful question 
that Pilate once asked of Him who was best able to 
answer it. But alas ! Pilate was in such haste through 
the lying fear of man, that he did not stay for an 
answer. May I venture to give one ? Truth is spi- 
ritual substance, and a lie spiritual shadow. Truth 
is spiritual light, and a lie spiritual darkness. Truth 
is the root of all virtue, and a lie is the root of all vice. 
Truth, is the celestial tincture that makes spirits good, 
and a lie the infernal tincture that makes them evil. 
A lie is as nearly related to the devil as infection to one 
that has the plague, or opacity to the .earth ; and truth 
is as nearly related to God as fragrancy to burning in- 
cense, and light to the unclouded sun. 

According to this definition of truth and error, may 



184 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



we not give plain and Scriptural answers to some of the 
deepest questions in the world ? What is God ? The 
reverse of " the prince of darkness," and of the " father 
of lies :" he is " the Father of lights," and " the God of 
truth :" he " is light, and in him is no darkness at all." 
What is Christ? He is "the brightness of his Father's 
glory ; a light — a great light to them that dwell in the 
shadow of death." He is " the truth ; the true witness ; 
the truth itself ; Emmanuel, God with us, full of grace 
and truth." What is the Holy Ghost? " The Spirit 
of truth :" yea, says St. John, " the Spirit is truth," and 
" leads into all truth." What is Satan ? " The spirit 
of error" that " abode not in the truth ; in whom there 
is no truth," and who " deceives the nations which are 
in the four quarters of the earth." 

Again : what is the gospel ? " The word of truth, 
the word of God, the word of faith, the word of the 
kingdom, the word of life, and the word of salvation." 
What are gospel ministers ? Men that " bear witness 
to the truth ;" that " rightly divide the word of truth f 
that are " fellow helpers to the truth ;" that " speak forth 
the words of truth ;" and " are valiant for the truth upon 
the earth." What is the preaching of the gospel ? " The 
manifestation of the truth." What is it to believe the 
gospel ? It is to " receive the knowledge of the truth ;" 
to " receive the love of the truth ;" and to " obey the 
truth." What is it to mistake the gospel ? It is to " err 
from the truth f to " turn after fables f and to " give 
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." What 
is the church ? " The pillar and ground of truth, against 
which the gates of hell shall not prevail." What is the 
first fruit of sincere repentance ? " The acknowledging 
of the truth." What are believers? Persons that are 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



185 



" chosen to salvation through the [u necessitated] belief 
of the truth ;" that " are of the truth ;" that " know the 
truth ;" that have " the truth in their inward parts-;" 
that have " a good report of the truth ; in whom dwells 
the truth ; who have been taught the truth as it is in 
Jesus ; in whom is the truth of Christ ; who have puri- 
fied their souls by obeying the truth ;" and " walk in 
the truth." What are unstable souls ? People " ever 
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of 
the truth," "with whom " the truth of the gospel does 
not continue," and who are wilfully " bewitched, that 
they should not obey the truth." What are obstinate 
unbelievers ? " Men of corrupt minds, destitute of the 
truth ; unreasonable men," that " resist the truth ;" that 
"glory and lie against the truth ;" that " walk in dark- 
ness, and do not the truth." What are apostates? Men 
that " sin wilfully after they have received the know- 
ledge of the truth," and, instead of repenting, "count 
the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sancti- 
fied, an unholy thing." What are perfect men in 
Christ? Men that are "established in the present 
truth," i. e., in the truth revealed under the Christian 
dispensation, and that can do nothing against the truth, 
but for the truth. 

If all turns thus upon truth, and if truth is at once 
spiritual light and the object of saving faith, it follows : 
(1.) That to walk in the truth, to walk in the light, 
and to walk by faith, are phrases of the same import. 
(2.) That to be converted is to be " turned from dark- 
ness to light," that is, from the practical belief of a lie 
to the practical "belief of the truth;" or, as St. Paul 
expresses it, "from the power of Satan unto God." 
And, (3.) That the chief business of the tempter is to 



186 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



" take the word of truth out of our hearts, lest we should 
believe and be saved ;" or, in other terms, to 61 blind our 
minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ 
should shine unto us." 

If Jesus Christ is the truth, the light, the life, and the 
"Word that " was in the beginning with God, and was 
God ;" the Word " by which all things were made" and 
are preserved : if he is " the light that shineth in dark- 
ness," even when the darkness comprehendeth it not : 
if " he is the true light which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world," while the day of salvation lasts : 
if he is the archetype, the eternal, living pattern of all 
saving truth : if he is the essential, almighty Word, 
from whom revealed truth and the word of our salva- 
tion flow as constantly as light and heat from the sun : 
do we not slight him, and despise eternal life, when we 
slight the truth, and despise the Word? And may not 
the great things spoken of the Word confirm what has 
been said of the truth, and help us to answer the ques- 
tions already proposed in a manner equally Scriptural 
and conclusive? 

Not forgetting that there is such a thing as f the 
word nigh, the word behind" us, the " still small voice," 
and " the word of that grace which has appeared unto 
all men, teaching them to deny worldly lusts, and to 
live soberly," &c, I ask, What are evangelists ? Men 
who " bear record of the word of God," and " bear wit- 
ness of the light, that all men may believe." " Sowers, 
that sow the word of the kingdom : holding forth the 
word of life." What are false apostles? Men that 
" corrupt the word of God," that " handle the word of 
God deceitfully," and " preach another gospel ; whose 
words eat as does a canker." What are believers? 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



187 



People that " hear the word of God and keep it that 
are " begotten of God by the word of truth that " are 
born again by the word of God ;" that " hear the say- 
ings of Christ, and do them ; in whose hearts the word 
of Christ dwells richly ; who receive it not as the word 
of men, but, as it is iu truth, the word of God, which 
worketh effectually in them that believe" it. They are 
persons that " receive with meekness the ingrafted 
' word, which is able to save their souls ;" that have 
" tasted the good word of God," that " desire the sincere 
milk of the word, that they may grow thereby f that 
" gladly receive the word ; have God's word abiding in 
them ;" are made " clean through the word which 
Christ speaks" by his ministers, his Scriptures, his Spi- 
rit, his works, or his rod ; and " in whom the seed of 
that word produces" thirty fold, sixty fold, or a hundred 
fold, according to their light, faithfulness, and oppor- 
tunity. 

Again : what are unbelievers ? Antinomian hypo- 
crites " that hear the sayings of Christ, and do them 
not ;" or Pharisaic " despisers that stumble at the word, 
speak against those things which are spoken by" God's 
messengers; "contradicting and blaspheming;" and 
who, by " putting the word of God from them, judge 
themselves unworthy of eternal life." What are mar- 
tyrs 1 Witnesses of the truth ; " slain for the word of 
God." And what are apostates? Persons in whom 
" the word is choked by the cares of this world, or the 
deceitfulness of riches ;" who " fall away when perse- 
cution ariseth because of the word ; by reason of whom 
the way of truth is evil spoken of f and in whom the 
seed of the word " becometh unfruitful." Thus all turns 
still upon truth and the word of God. 



188 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE SCRIPTURE SCALES. 
SECTION I. 

THREE PAIR OF GOSPEL AXIOMS, WHICH MAY BE CON- 
SIDERED AS GOLDEN CHAINS, BY WHICH THE SCRIP- 
TURE SCALES HANG ON THEIR BEAM. 



I. 

I. Every obedient be- 
liever's salvation is origin- 
ally of God's free grace. 

II. God's free grace is 
always the first cause of 
what is good. 

III. When God's free 
grace has begun to work 
moral good, man may 
faithfully follow him by 
believing, ceasing to do 
evil, and working right- 
eousness, according to his 
light and talent. 

Thus is God the wise 
rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him, ac- 
cording to these words of 
the apostle: — "God, at the 
revelation of his righteous 
judgment, will render to 
every man according to 
his deeds; eternal life to 



II. 

I. Every unbeliever's 
damnation is originally of 
his own personal free will. 

II. Man's free will is 
always the first cause of 
what is evil. 

III. When man's free 
will has begun to work 
moral evil, God may justly 
follow him by withdraw- 
ing his slighted grace, re- 
vealing his deserved wrath, 
and working natural evil. 

Thus is God the right- 
eous punisher of them 
that obstinately neglect 
him, according to such 
scriptures as these : — "S hall 
not the Judge of all the 
earth do right ? Ye say, 
The way of the Lord is 
not equal: hear now, O ye 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



189 



I. II. 

them who by patient con- house of Israel, Is not my 
tinuance in well doing seek way equal ? I will judge 
for glory. Seeing it is a you every one after his 
righteous thing with God way. Is God unright- 
to recompense rest to them eous, who taketh ven- 
who are troubled" for his geance? God forbid! How 
sake, to give them "a then shall God judge the 
crown of righteousness" as world ? Thou art right- 
a righteous Judge, and to eous, O Lord, &c, because 
make them "walk with thou hast judged thus. 
Christ in white, because Thou hast given them 
they are worthy? (in a blood to drink, for they are 
gracious and evangelical worthy, 11 (in a strict and 
sense.) legal sense.) 

Hence it appears that God's design in the three 
grand economies of man's creation, redemption, and 
sanctification, is to display the riches of his free 
grace and distributive justice, by showing him- 
self the bounteous Author of every good gift, and by 
graciously rewarding the worthy: while he justly 
punishes the unworthy according to their works, agree- 
ably to these awful words of Christ and his prophets : 
" For judgment I am come into this world. The Lord 
hath made all things for himself ; yea, even the [men 
who to the last will remain] wicked, for the day of evil. 
Because he hath appointed a day in which he will 
judge the world in righteousness ;" and to all the 
wicked that day will be evil and terrible : " For be- 
hold, the day cometh," says the Lord, " that shall burn 
as an oven ; and all that do wickedly shall be as 
stubble : and the day that cometh shall burn them up, 
says the Lord of hosts. But the righteous shall rejoice 



190 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



when he seeth the vengeance : so that a man shall say, 
Verily there is a reward for the righteous! Doubt- 
less there is a God that judgeth the earth !" 

Upon this rational and Scriptural plan, may we not 
solve a difficulty that has perplexed all the philosophers 
in the world ? " How can you," say they, " reasonably 
account for the origin of evil without bearing hard 
upon God's infinite goodness, power, or knowledge? 
How can you make appear, not only that a good God 
could create a world, where evil now exists in ten thou- 
sand forms ; but also, that it was highly expedient he 
should create such a world rather than any other?" 

Answer. — When it pleased God to create a world, 
his wisdom obliged him to create upon the plan that 
was most worthy of him. Such a plan was undoubt- 
edly that which agreed best with all the divine perfec- 
tions taken together. Wisdom and power absolutely 
required that it should be a world of rational, as well 
as of irrational creatures ; of free as well as of neces- 
sary agents ; such a world displaying far better what 
St. Paul calls tsolvKoiKtlog co$ta, "the multifarious, 
variegated wisdom of God," as well as his infinite 
power in making, ruling, and overruling various orders 
of beings. 

It could not be expected that myriads of free agents, 
who necessarily fell short of absolute perfection, would 
all behave alike. Here God's goodness demanded that 
those who behaved well should be rewarded ; his sove- 
reignty insisted that those who behaved ill should be 
punished ; and his distributive justice and equity re- 
quired that those who made the best use of their talents 
should be entitled to the highest rewards ; while those 
who abused divine favours most should have the se- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



191 



verest punishments ; mercy reserving to itself the right 
of raising rewards and of alleviating punishments, in a 
way suited to the honour of all the other divine attri- 
butes. 

This being granted, (and I do not see how any man 
of reason and piety can deny it,) it evidently follows, 
(1.) That a world, in which various orders of free as 
well as of necessary agents are admitted, is most per- 
fect. (2.) That this world, having been formed upon 
such a wise plan, was the most perfect that could pos- 
sibly be created. (3.) That in the very nature of things, 
evil may j although there is no necessity it should, en- 
ter into such a world : else it could not be a world of 
free agents who are candidates for rewards offered by 
distributive justice. (4.) That the blemishes and dis- 
orders of the natural world are only penal consequences 
of the disobedience of free agents. And (5.) That, 
from such penal disorders we may indeed conclude that 
man has abused free will, but not that God deals in 
free wrath. Only admit, therefore, the free will of ra- 
tional, and you cannot but fall in love with our Crea- 
tor's plan ; dark and horrid as it appears when it is 
viewed through the smoked glass of the fatalist, the 
Manichee, or the rigid predestinarian. 



SECTION II. 

SETTING FORTH THE GLORY OF FAITH AND THE HONOUR 
OF WORKS. 

FIRST SCALE. SECOND SCALE. 

Whosoever believeth on Then shall I not be 
him [Christ] shall not ashamed, when I have re- 



192 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



I. 

be ashamed, Rom. x, 
11. 

This is the work of God, 
that ye believe on him 
whom he hath sent, John 
vi, 29. 

Abraham believed God, 
&c, and he was called the 
friend of God, James ii, 
23. 

To him that worketh 
not, but believeth, &c, his 
faith is counted for right- 
eousness, Rom. iv, 5. 

If ye believe not that I 
am he, ye shall die in 
your sins, John viii, 24. 

Only believe, [I particu- 
larly require a strong exer- 
tion of thy faith at this 
time,] Luke viii, 50. 

He that believethon him 
that sent me, hath ever- 
lasting life, arid shall not 
come into condemnation ; 
but is passed from death 
unto life, John v, 24. 

Thy faith hath saved 
thee, Luke vii, 50. 

Through faith they 
wrought righteousness, ob- 



II. 

sped unto all thy com- 
mandments, Psa. cxix, 6. 

What does the Lord re- 
quire of thee, but to do 
justly, to love mercy, and 
to walk humbly with thy 
God, Micah vi, 8. 

Ye are my friends, if 
ye do whatsoever I com- 
mand you, John xv, 14. 

Faith, if it hath not 
works, is dead, being alone, 
James ii, 17. 

Brethren, &c, if ye live 
after the flesh, ye shall die, 
Rom. viii, 13. 

The devils believe, [there- 
fore faith is not sufficient 
without its works,] James 
ii, 19. 

With the merciful thou 
[O God] wilt show thyself 
merciful : and with the fro- 
ward thou wilt show thy- 
self unsavoury, 2 Sam. 
xxii, 26, 27. 

We are saved by hope, 
Rom. viii, 24. 

Remembering, &c., your 
labour of love — let pa- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



193 



i 

tained promises, &c., Heb. 
xi, 33. 

With the heart man be- 
lieveth to righteousness, 
Rom. x, 10. 

Received ye the Spirit by 
the works of the law, or by 
the hearing of faith 7 Gal. 
iii, 2. 

Through his name, who- 
soever believeth on him 
shall receive remission of 
sins, Acts x, 43. 

If Abraham were justi- 
fied by works, he hath 
whereof to glory, Rom. iv, 2. 

Without faith it is im- 
possible to please God, Heb. 
xi, 6. 

They that are of faith 
are blessed with faithful 
Abraham, Gal. iii, 9. 

To them that are unbe- 
lieving is NOTHING PURE, 

Tit. i, 15. 

Believe in the Lord, 



II. 

Hence have her perfect 
work, 1 Thess. i, 3 ; James 

i, 4. 

And with the mouth 
confession is made to sal 
vation. {Ibid.) 

I know thy works, that 
thou art neither cold nor 
hot, &c., so then, &c., I 
will spew thee out of 
my mouth, Rev. iii, 15, 
16. 

Forgive, and ye shall 
be forgiven. If we con- 
fess our sins, he is faith- 
ful and just to forgive us, 
Luke vi, 37 ; 1 John i, 9. 

Was not Abraham our 
i^Xher justified by works? 
James ii, 21. 

O vain man, faith with- 
out works is dead, James 

ii, 20. 

If ye were Abraham's 
children, ye would do the 
works of Abraham, John 
viii, 39. 

Give alms, &c, and 
behold all things are 
clean unto you, Luke xi, 
41. 

If thou doest well, shalt 



194 



BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 



L 

&c, so shall you be es- 
tablished, 2 Chron. xx, 
20. 

To the praise of the 
glory of his grace, (fee, he 
hath made us accepted in 
the beloved, Eph. i, 6. 

I live by faith in the 
Son of God, who loved me, 
and gave himself for me, 
Gal. ii, 20. 

For me to live is Christ, 
Phil, i, 21. 

This [Christ] is the true 
God, and eternal life, 1 
John v, 20. 

This is eternal life, to 
know thee, &c., and Jesus 
Christ, John xvii, 3. . 

He that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life, 
John iii, 36. 

Israel, which followed 
after the law of righteous- 
ness, hath not attained to 
the law of righteousness. 
Wherefore 1 Because they 
sought it not by faith, but 
as it were by the works of 
the law [opposed to Christ;] 



II. 

not thou be accepted ? 
Gen. iv, 7. 

In every nation he that 
feareth God, and worketh 
righteousness, is accepted 
with him, Acts x, 35. 

If ye, through the Spirit, 
mortify the deeds of the 
body, ye shall live, Rom. 
viii, 13. 

Keep my command- 
ments and live, Prov. iv, 
4. 

His [my Father's] com- 
mandment is life ever- 
lasting, John xii, 50. 

Though I have all 
knowledge, &c, and have 
not charity, I am nothing, 
1 Cor. xiii, 2. 

And he that [axeidei] dis- 
obey eth the Son, shall not 
see life. (Ibid.) 

If any man among 
you, &c., bridleth not his 
tongue, &c.j this man's re- 
ligion is vain. Pure reli- 
gion and undefiled before 
God is this : to visit the 
fatherless and widows in 
their affliction, and to keep 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



195 



I. 

for they stumbled at that 
stumbling stone, Rom. ix, 
31,32. 

Abraham believed God, 
and it was imputed [or 
counted] to him for right- 
eousness, Rom. iv, 3. 

Trust [i. e., believe] ye 
in the Lord for ever; for 
in the Lord Jehovah is 
everlasting strength, Isa. 
xxvi, 4. 

He that believeth on 
him is not condemned, but 
he that believeth not is 
condemned already, John 
iii, 18. 

Be it known unto you 
that through this man is 
preached unto you the for- 
giveness of sins; and by 
him all that believe are 
justified, Acts xiii, 38, 
39. 

We have believed in 
Jesus Christ that we might 
be justified [as sinners] 
by the faith of Christ, 
Gal. ii, 16. 

The balance of the prec 



II. 

himself unspotted from the 
world, James i, 26, 27. 

Phinehas executed judg- 
ment, and that was count- 
ed [or imputed] unto him 
for righteousness for ever- 
more, Psa. cvi, 30, 31. 

If I regard iniquity in 
my heart, the Lord will 
not hear me. If our heart 
condemn us not, then have 
we confidence toward God, 
Psa. lxvi, 18 ; 1 John iii, 21. 

He that humbleth him- 
self shall be exalted, and 
every one that exalteth 
himself shall be abased, 
Luke xiv, 11. 

The doers of the law 
[of faith] shall be justi- 
fied, — in the day when 
God shall judge the secrets 
of men, &c, according to 
my gospel, Rom. ii, 13, 16. 

In the day of judgment 
— by thy words thou shalt 
be justified, and by thy 
words thou shalt be con- 
demned, Matt, xii, 36, 37. 
ding scriptures shows that 



196 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

fatih, and the works of faith, are equally necessary 
to the salvation of adults. Faith, for their justification 
as sinners, in the day of conversion ; and the works 
of faith, for their justification as believers, both in the 
day of trial and of judgment. Hence it follows, 
that when Zelotes preaches mere Sbliftdianism, and 
when Honestus enforces mere morality, they both 
grossly mangle Bible Christianity, which every real 
Protestant is bound to defend against all Antinomian 
and Pharisaic innovators. 



SECTION III. 

SHOWING WHAT IS GOD'S WORK, AND WHAT IS OUR OWN J 
HOW CHRIST SAVES US, AND HOW WE WORK OUT OUR 
OWN SALVATION. 

FIRST SCALE. 

Containing the weights of 

FREE GRACE. 

The hour is coming and 
now is, when the dead 
shall hear the voice of the 
Son of God ; and they that 
hear shall live, John v, 25. 

I am come, that they 
might have life, and that 
they might have it more 
abundantly, John x, 10. 
\ You hath he quickened, 
who were dead in tres- 
passes and sins, Eph. ii, 1. 

You being dead in your 



SECOND SCALE. 

Containing the weights of 

FREE WILL. 

Awake, thou that sleep- 
est, arise from the dead, 
and Christ shall give thee 
light, Eph. v, 14. 

Except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of man, &c, ye 
have no life in you, John 
vi, 53. 

Ye will not come unto 
me, that ye might have 
life, John v, 40. 
Thou hast a name that 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



197 



I. 

sins, (fee, hath he quicken- 
ed together with him, Col. 

ii, 13. 

Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God, John 

iii, 3. 

The wind bloweth where 
it listeth, &c, so is every- 
one that is born of the 
/Spirit, John iii, 8. 



Being born again, not 
of corruptible seed, but, 
&c, by* the word of God ; 



m 

thou livest, and art dead, 
&c. Strengthen the things 
that remain, and are ready 
to die, Rev. iii, 1, 2. 

Every one that loveth — 
every one that does right- 
eousness, is born of God, 
1 John iv, 7 ; ii, 29. 

Humble yourselves un- 
der the mighty hand of 
God, that he may exalt 
you. For God resisteth 
the proud, and giveth 
grace to the humble, 1 
Pet. v, 6, 5. 

Wherefore, &c, lay 
apart all filthiness, &c, 
and receive* &c., the in 



* How mistaken were the divines that composed the synod of 
Dort, when, speaking of regeneration, they said, without any dis- 
tinction, (Illam Deus in nobis sine nobis operator,) " God works i* 
in us without us !" Just as if God believed in us without us ! Jus* 
as if we received the word without our receiving of it ! Just as if 
the sower and the sun produced corn without the field that bears it I 
What led them into this mistake was, no doubt, a commendable 
desire to maintain the honour of free grace. However, if by rege- 
neration they meant the first communication of that fructifying, 
" saving grace, which has appeared to all men" — the first visit, or 
the first implanting of" that light of life, which enlightens every man 
that cometh into the world," they spoke a precious truth : for God 
bestows this free gift upon us, absolutely " without us !" Nor could 
we ever do what he requires of us in the scale of free will, if he had 
not first given us a talent of grace, and if he did not continually help 
us to use it aright when we have a good will. 



198 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



I. IB 

and this is the word, which grafted word, James i, 19, 
by the gospel is preached 21. Whosoever believeth y 
unto you, 1 Pet. i, 23, 25. &c, is born of God, [ac- 
Of his own will begat he cording to his dispensa- 
us with the word of truth, tion,] 1 John v, 1. As 
James i, 18. many as received him, to 

them [of his own gracious 
will] gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God, even 
to them that believe on his 
name, John i, 12. For ye 
are all the children of God 
by faith in Christ Jesus. 
Faith cometh by hearing, 
[which is our work,] Gal. 
iii, 26 ; Rom. x, 17. They 
[the Bereans] received the 
word with all readiness of 
mind, and searched the 
Scriptures daily, whether 
those things were so; there- 
fore many of them believ- 
ed; [i. e., received " the 
ingrafted word," and by 
that means were " born 
again" according to the 
Christian dispensation ;] 
Acts xvii, 11, 12. 
Christ our passover is Purge out the old lea- 
sacrificed for us, 1 Cor. ven [of wickedness] that 
vi, 7. ye may be a new lump. 

(Ibid.) 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



199 



I. 

The blood of Christ 
cleanseth us from all sin, 
1 John i, 7. 

By one offering he hath 
perfected for ever [in aton- 
ing merits] them that are 
sanctified, Heb. x, 14. 

He by himself purged 
our sins. Of the people 
there was none with him, 
Heb. i, 3 ; Isaiah lxiii, 3. 
[Here the incommunicable 
glory of making a proper 
atonement for sin is se- 
cured to our Lord.] 

He put away sin by 
the sacrifice of himself, 
Heb. ix, 26. 

Ye are sanctified, &c, 
in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of 
our God, 1 Cor. vi, 11. 

Surely one shall say, In 
[or through] the Lord 
have I righteousness and 
strength, Isa. xlv, 24. 



II. 

Cleanse your hands, ye 
sinners ; and purify your 
hearts, ye double-minded, 
James iv, 8. 

Let us go on unto per- 
fection. This one thing 
I do, &c. I press toward 
the mark, Heb. vi, 1 ; Phil, 
iii, 13. 

Ye have purified your 
souls in obeying the truth. 
Yerily I have cleansed my 
heart in vain, and washed 
my hands in innocency. 
[The word in vain refers 
only to a temptation of 
David when he " saw the 
prosperity of the wicked,"] 
1 Pet. i, 22 ; Psa. lxxiii, 13. 

Put away the evil of 
your doing from before 
mine eyes, Isa. i, 16. 

If a man purge him- 
self from these, he shall 
be a vessel unto honour, 
sanctified, and meet for 
the Master's use, 2 Tim. 
ii, 21. 

In every nation he that 
worketh righteousness is 
accepted of Him, Acts x, 
35. 



200 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



I. 

I will make mention of 
iky righteousness, even 
of thine only, &c. My 
mouth shall ^iow forth 
thy righteousness, and 
thy salvation all the day, 
Psa. lxxi, 15, 16. 

My righteousness is 
near, my salvation is gone 
forth, Isa. li, 5. 

I bring near my right- 
eousness, it shall not be 
far off; and my salvation 
shall not tarry, Isa. xlvi, 
13. 

God sent his Son Jesus 
to bless you, in turning, 
&c., you from your iniqui- 
ties, Acts iii, 26. 

Him [Christ] hath God 
exalted to give repentance 
to Israel, and forgiveness 
of sins, Acts v, 31. 

Be it known unto you, 
that through this man 
[Christ] is preached unto 
you the forgiveness of 
sins, Acts xxxi, 38. 

Not by works of right- 



ik 

Then [when thou deal- 
est thy bread to the hungry, 
bringest the poor to thy 
house, &c.,] then shall thy 
righteousness go before 
thee, and the glory of the 
Lord shall be thy rereward, 
Isa. lviii, 8. 

Whosoever does not 
righteousness is not of 
God, 1 John iii, 10. 

The Lord rewarded me 
[David] according to my 
righteousness, according 
to the cleanness of my 
hands, 2 Sam. xxii, 21. 

I thought on my ways, 
and turned my feet unto 
thy testimonies. I made 
haste, and delayed not to 
keep thy commandments, 
Psa. cxix, 59, 60. 

Repent ye, therefore, 
and be converted, that 
your sins may be blotted 
out, Acts iii, 19. 

Arise : why tarriest 
thou? Wash away thy 
sins; calling upon the 
name of the Lord, Acts 
xxii, 16. 

Except your righteous- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



201 



I 

eousness which we have 
done ; but of his mercy he 
saved us, Tit. iii, 5. 

And this is the name 
whereby he shall be called, 
The Lord our righteous- 
ness, Jer. xxiii, 6. 

Them that have obtain- 
ed like precious faith with 
us, through the righteous- 
ness of God and our Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. 

u- 

Christ is made unto 
us of God, &c, righteous- 
ness, 1 Cor. i, 30. 

Even for mine own sake 
will I do it, Isa. xlviii, 11. 

No man can say that 
Jesus is the Lord, but by 
the Holy Ghost — the Spi- 
rit of faith, 1 Cor. xii, 3 ; 
2 Cor. iv, 13. 

I will put my Spirit 
within you, Ezek. xxxvi, 
27. I will pour out of my 
Spirit upon all flesh, Acts 
ii, 17. 



II. 

ness exceed the righteous- 
ness of the scribes, ye shall 
in no case enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, Matt, 
v, 20. 

He that does righteous- 
ness is righteous, even as 
he [Christ] is righteous, 
1 John iii, 7. 

Though Noah, Daniel, 
and Job were in it, [the 
place about to be destroy- 
ed,] they should deliver 
but their own souls by 
their righteousness, Ezek. 
xiv, 14. 

The righteousness of 
the righteous shall be 
upon him, Ezek. xviii, 20. 

/ will for this be in- 
quired of, <fec, to do it for 
them, Ezek. xxxvi, 37. 

Your heavenly Father 
will give his Holy Spirit 
to them that ask him — to 
them that obey him, Luke 
xi, 13 ; Acts x, 32. 

Repent and be baptized, 
&c, [or stand to your bap- 
tismal vow,] and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy 
Ghost, Acts ii, 38. 



202 



BEATTTIES OF FLETCHER. 



L 

Hear me, O Lord, that 
this people may know, &c., 
that thouhast turned their 
heart back again, 1 Kings 
xviii, 37. 

A new heart wiU I give 
you, &c. I will take away 
the stony heart, &c., and I 
will give you a heart of 
flesh, Ezek. xxxvi, 26. 

The preparation of the 
heart in man is from the 
Lord. Thou wilt prepare 
their heart, [the heart of 
the humble,] Prov. xvi, 1 j 
Psa. x, 17. 

The Lord will give 
grace and glory, Psalm 
lxxxiv, 11. 

Exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises are given 
us ; that by these you might 
be partakers of the divine 
nature, 2 Pet. i, 4. 

Come, for all things are 
now ready, Luke xiv, 17. 

The Lord will wait to 
be gracious, Isa. xxx, 18. 

Be not dismayed, for 



II. 

Take with you words, 
and turn to the Lord. 
Turn ye even to me with 
all your heart, Hos. xiv, 
2 ; Joel ii, 12. 

Harden not your heart : 
rend your heart : make 
you a new heart, for why 
will ye die 7 Psa. xcv, 8 ; 
Joel ii, 13 ; Ezek. xviii, 31. 

Nevertheless, there are 
good things found in thee, 
in that, &c, thou hast pre- 
pared thine heart to seek 
God, 2 Chron. xix, 3. 

No good thing will he 
withhold from them that 
walk uprightly. (Ibid.) 

Having therefore these 
promises, let us cleanse 
ourselves from all rilthi- 
ness of the flesh and spirit, 
2 Cor. vii, L 

The Lamb's wife hath 
made herself ready. Be 
ye also ready, Rev. xix, 
7 ; Matt, xxiv, 44. 

Wait on the Lord, &c. : 
wait, I say, on the Lord, 
Psa. xxvii, 14. 

David encouraged hi?n- 



BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 



203 



I. 

I am thy God; I will 
strengthen thee, Isa. xli, 
10. 

Yea, I will uphold thee 
with the right hand of my 
righteousness, Isa. xli, 10. 



/ will sprinkle clean 
water upon you, and ye 
shall be clean: from all 
your filthiness, and from 
all your idols will I cleanse 
you, Ezek. xxxvi, 25. 

I the Lord do keep it 
[the spiritual vineyard] lest 
any hurt it. I will keep it 
night and day, Isa. xxvii, 
3. 

I will give them a heart 
of flesh, that they may 
walk in my statutes, Ezek. 
xi, 20. 



m 

self in his God, 1 Sam. 
xxx, 6. They that wait 
on the Lord shall renew 
their strength, Isa. xl, 31. 

Cursed is the man that 
makeih flesh his arm, 
Jer. xvii, 5. Cast thy bur- 
den upon the Lord, and 
he will sustain thee, Psa. 
lv, 22. 

Wash ye, make you 
clean, Isa. i, 16. O Jeru- 
salem, wash thy heart 
from wickedness, that thou 
mayest be saved, Jer. iv, 
14. 

Keep thyself pure, 1 
Tim. v, 22. Keep thy 
heart with all diligence, 
for out of it are the issues 
of life, Prov. iv, 23. 

What does the Lord re- 
quire of thee but, &c, to 
loalk humbly with thy 
God? Micah vi, 8. And 
Enoch* set himself to 
ivalk with God, Gen. v, 
24. 



* The word in the original is in the conjugation Hithpahel, which 
signifies to cause one's self to do a thing. Our translation does not 
do it justice. Nor can Zelotes reasonably object to the meaning of 
the word used by Moses, unless he can prove that Enoch had no 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



204 

L 

David my servant shall 
be king over them ; and, 
&c, they shall walk in 
my judgments, Ezekiel 
xxxvii, 24. 

For we are his work- 
manship, created in Christ 
Jesus unto the good works 
which God [by his word 
of command, by providen- 
tial occurrences, and by 
secret intimations of his 
will, xsporiTOLiiaat\ hath be- 
fore prepared, that we 
should walk in them, Eph. 
ii, 10. 



God hath saved us, and 
called us with a holy call- 
ing ; not according to our 
works, but according to his 
own purpose and grace, 
which was given us in 
Christ before the world be- 
gan, 2 Tim. i, 9. 



II. 

He that saith he abideth 
in him, [God manifested 
in the flesh,] ought him- 
self also so to walk, even 
as he w T alked, 1 John ii, 6. 

And as many as walk 
according to this rule, peace 
be on them and mercy, 
Gal. vi, 16. That they 
might set their hope in 
God, (fee, and not be as 
their fathers, a stubborn 
generation, (fee, that set 
not their heart aright, 
(fee, and refused to walk 
in his law. But as for me, 
I will walk in mine in- 
tegrity, Psa. lxxviii, 7, 10 ; 
xx vi, 11. 

The grace of God, that 
bringeth salvation, hath 
appeared unto all men, 
teaching us that we should 
live soberly, (fee Give 
diligence to make your 
calling sure. How shall 
we escape if we neglect so 



hand, and no foot, in his walking with God; and that God dragged 
him as if he had been a passive cart, or a recoiling cannon. How. 
ever, I readily grant that Enoch did not set himsel f to walk with God 
without the help of that "saving grace which has appeared to all 
men," and which so many " receive in vain." 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



205 



I. 



I will give them a heart 
to know me, that I am the 
Lord, Jer. xxiv, 7. 

I will put my fear in 
their hearts, Jer. xxxii, 40. 

The Lord thy God will 
circumcise thine heart, 
Deut. xxx, 6. 

/ will put my law in 
their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts, 
Jer. xxxi, 33. 



We love him, because 
he first loved us, 1 John 
iv, 19. 

By grace ye are saved, 
through faith; and that 
not of yourselves, it is the 
gift of God, Eph. ii, 8. 
It is of faith, that it might 
be by grace, Rom. iv, 16. 

Not for thy righteous- 



II. 

great salvation? Titus ii, 
11,12; 2 Pet. i, 10; Heb. 
ii, 3. 

Then shall we know, 
if we follow on to know 
the Lord, Hos. vi, 3. 

They shall not find me, 
<fec, for that they did not 
choose the fear of the 
Lord, Prov. i, 29. 

Circumcise, therefore, 
the foreskin of your heart, 
Deut. x, 16. 

Let every man be swift 
to hear, &c. Receive with 
meekness the ingrafted 
word, which is able to save 
your souls, James i, 19, 21. 
Thy word have I hid in 
my heart, Psa. cxix, 11. 

The Father loveth you, 
because ye have believed, 
John xvi, 27. 

Believe, &c., and thou 
shalt be saved, Acts xvi, 
31. Receive not the grace 
of God in vain, 2 Cor. vi, 
1. Looking diligently lest 
any man fail of [or be 
wanting to] the grace of 
God, Heb. xii, 15. 

Inherit the kingdom^ 



206 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ness, &c, dost thou go 
and possess their land, 
Deut. ix, 5. 

Not of works, lest any 
man should boast, Eph. 
ii, 9. 

Thou hast hid those 
things from the wise and 
prudent, [in their own 
eyes,] and revealed them 
unto babes, Luke x, 21. 



II. 

&c., for I was hungry, and 
ye gave me meat, (fee, 
Matt, xxv, 34. 

Charge them, &c., to 
do good, <fec, that they 
may lay hold on eternal 
life, 1 Tim. vi, 17, &c. 

Who is wise, and he 
shall understand these 
things? prudent, and he 
shall know them? Hos. 
xiv, 9. None of the wick- 
ed shall understand, but 
the wise shall understand, 
Dan. xii, 10. 



If I am not mistaken, the balance of the preceding 
scriptures shows that Pharisaism and Antinomianism 
are equally unscriptural ; the harmonious opposition of 
those passages evincing, (1.) That our free will is 
subordinately a worker with God's free grace in every 
thing but a proper atonement for sin, and the first 
implanting of the light which enlightens every man 
that comes into the world : such an atonement having 
been fully completed by Christ's blood, and such an 
implanting being entirely performed by his Spirit. 
(2.) That Honestus is most dreadfully mistaken, when 
he makes next to nothing of free grace and her works. 
(3.) That Zelotes obtrudes a most dangerous paradox 
upon the simple, when he preaches finished salvation 
in the Crispian sense of the word. And, (4.) That 
St. Paul speaks as the oracles of God, when he says, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 207 

" God worketh in you, &c., therefore work ye out your 
own salvation." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A RATIONAL AND SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF ST. PAUL'S 
MEANING IN THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE EPIS- 
TLE TO THE ROMANS. 

Reason and conscience should alone, one would 
think, convince us that St. Paul, in Rom. ix, does not 
plead for a right in God so to hate any of his un- 
formed creatures as to intend, make, and fit them for 
destruction, merely to show his absolute sovereignty 
and irresistible power. The apostle knew too well 
the God of love to represent him as a mighty pot- 
ter, who takes an unaccountable pleasure to form ra- 
tional vessels, and to endue them with keen sensibility, 
only to have the glory of absolutely filling them, by the 
help of Adam, with sin and wickedness on earth, and 
then w T ith fire and brimstone in hell. This is the con- 
ceit of the consistent admirers of unconditional election 
and rejection, who build it chiefly upon Rom. ix. 
Should you ask why they fix so dreadful a meaning on 
that portion of Scripture, I answer, that through inat- 
tention and prejudice they overlook the two keys which 
the apostle gives us to open his meaning, one of which 
we find in the first three, and the other in the last three 
verses of that perverted chapter. 

In the first three verses St. Paul expresses the "continual 
sorrow" which he "had in his heart" for the obstinacy of 
his countrymen, the Jews, who so depended upon their 
national prerogatives, as Jews ; their church privileges, 



208 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



as children of Abraham; and their Pharisaic right- 
eousness of the law, as observers of the Mosaic ceremo- 
nies, that they detested the doctrine of salvation by faith 
in Jesus Christ. Now, if the apostle had believed that 
God, by a wise decree of pretention, had irreversibly 
ordained them to eternal death " to illustrate his glory by 
their damnation," as Calvin says, how ridiculous would 
it have been in him to sorrow night and day about the 
execution of God's wise design ! If God, from the be- 
ginning of the world, had absolutely determined to make 
the unbelieving Jews personally and absolutely vessels 
of wrath, to the praise of the glory of his sovereign free 
wrath, how wicked would it have been in St. Paul to 
begin the next chapter by saying, " My heart's desire 
and prayer to God for unbelieving Israel, for the ob- 
stinate Jews, is that they might be saved !" Would he 
not rather have meekly submitted to the will of God, 
and said, like Eh, "It is the Lord : let him do what 
seemeth him good ?" Did it become him — nay, was it 
not next to rebellion in him, so passionately to set his 
heart against a decree made (as we are told) on purpose 
to display the absoluteness of divine sovereignty ? And 
would not the Jews have retorted his own words ! 
" Who art thou, O vain man, that repliest against God" 
by wishing night and day the salvation of " vessels of 
wrath :" of men whom he hath absolutely set apart for 
destruction ? 

" But if the apostle did not intend to establish the 
absolute, personal pretention of the rejected Jews and 
their fellow reprobates, what could he mean by that 
mysterious chapter ?" I reply : He meant in general 
to vindicate God's conduct in casting off the Jews, and 
adopting the Gentiles. This deserves some explana- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



209 



tion. When St. Paul insinuated to the Jews that they 
were rejected as a church and people, and that the un- 
circumcised Gentiles (even as many as believed on Jesus 
of Nazareth) were now the chosen nation, " the pecu- 
liar people," and church of God, his countrymen were 
greatly offended : and yet, as " the apostle of the Gen- 
tiles," to " provoke the Jews to jealousy," he was obliged 
peculiarly to enforce this doctrine among them. They 
generally gave him audience till he touched upon it. 
But when he " waxed bold," and told them plainly that 
Christ had bid him " depart from Jerusalem," as from 
an accursed city; and had "sent him far thence unto 
the Gentiles," they could contain themselves no longer ; 
and " lifting up their voices, they said, Away with such 
a fellow from the earth," Acts xiii, 46 ; xxii, 21.* 

When St. Paul wrote to Rome, the metropolis of the 
Gentile world, where there were a great many Jews, 
the Holy Ghost directed him to clear up the question 
concerning the general election of the Gentiles, and the 
general rejection of the Jews. And this he did, both 
for the comfort of the humble, Gentile believers, and for 

*It is remarkable that Jewish rage first broke out against our 
Lord when he touched their great Diana — the doctrine of their ab- 
solute election. You think, said he, to be saved, merely because 
you are Abraham's children, and God's chosen, peculiar people. 
" But I tell you of a truth," God is not so partial to Israel as you 
suppose. " Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, but to 
none of them was Elias sent, but to a Zidonian [heathen] widow. 
And many lepers were in Israel in the days of Elisha, yet none of 
them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian," Luke iv, 25, &c. The 
Jews never forgave our Lord that levelling saying. If he narrowly 
escaped their fury at Nazareth, it was only to meet it increased se- 
venfold in the holy city. So fierce and implacable are the tempers to 
which some professors work up themselves, by drinking into un- 
scriptural notions of election ! 



210 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



the humiliation of his proud, self-elected countrymen ; 
that, being provoked to jealousy, they, or at least some 
of them, might with the Gentiles make their personal 
calling and election sure by believing in Christ. As the 
Jews were generally incensed against him, and he had 
a most disagreeable truth to write, he dips his pen in 
the oil of brotherly love, and begins the chapter by a most 
awful protestation of his tender attachment to them, and 
sorrowful concern for their salvation, hoping that this 
would soften them, and reconcile their prejudiced minds. 
But if he had represented them as absolute reprobates, 
and vessels of wrath irreversibly ordained of God to 
destruction, he would absurdly have defeated his own 
design, and exasperated them more than ever against 
his doctrine and his person. To suppose that he told 
them with one breath, he wished to be accursed from 
Christ for them, and with the next breath insinuated 
that God had absolutely accursed them with uncondi- 
tional, personal reprobation, is a notion so excessively 
big with absurdity, that at times Zelotes himself can 
scarcely swallow it down. Who indeed can believe 
that St. Paul made himself so ridiculous as to weep tears 
of the most ardent love over the free wrath of his rep- 
robating Creator? Who can imagine that the pious 
apostle painted out " the God of all grace," as a God 
full of immortal hatred to most of his countrymen: 
while he represented himself as a person continually 
racked with the tenderest feelings of a matchless affec- 
tion for them all ; thus impiously raising his own repu- 
tation, as a benevolent man, upon the ruins of the 
reputation of his malevolent God ? 

Come we now to the middle part of the chapter. St. 
Paul, having prepared the Jews for the disagreeable 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



211 



message which he was about to deliver, begins to at- 
tack their Pharisaic prejudices concerning their absolute 
right, as children of Abraham, to be God's church and 
people, exclusively of the rest of the world, whom they 
looked upon as reprobated dogs of the Gentiles. To 
drive the unbelieving Jews out of this sheltering place, 
he indirectly advances two doctrines : (1.) That God, 
as the Creator and supreme Benefactor of men, may do 
what he pleases with his peculiar favours; and that 
he had now as indubitable a right freely to give five 
talents of church privileges to the Gentiles, as he had 
once to bestow three talents of church privileges upon 
the Jews. And, (2.) That God had as much right to 
set the seal of his wrath upon them, as upon Pharaoh 
himself, if they continued to imitate the inflexibleness 
of that proud unbeliever ; inexorable unbelief being the 
sin that fits men for destruction, and pulls down the 
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 

The first of those doctrines he proves by a reasona- 
ble appeal to conscience: (1.) Concerning the absurdity 
of replying against God, i. e., against a being of in- 
finite wisdom, goodness, justice, and power. And 
(2.) Concerning a right which a potter has of the 
same u lump of clay" to make one vessel for* honour a~ 

* I have lived these fifteen years in a part of England where a 
multitude of potters make all manner of iron and earthen vessels. 
Some of these mechanics are by no means conspicuous for good 
sense, and others are at times besotted through excessive drinking ; 
but I never yet saw or heard of one so excessively foolish as to 
make, even in a drunken fit, a vessel on purpose to break it, to 
show that he had power over the work of his own hands. Such, 
however, is the folly that Zelotes' scheme imputes to God. Nay, 
if a potter makes vessels on purpose to break them, he is only a 
fool ; but if he could make sensible vessels like dogs, and formed 
them on purpose to roast them alive, and that "he might show his 



212 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

and another for comparatively dishonourable uses. 
The argument carries conviction along with it. Were 
utensils capable of thought, the basin, in which our 
Lord washed his disciples' feet, (a comparatively dis- 
honourable use,) could never reasonably complain that 
the potter had not made it the cup in which Christ con- 
secrated the sacramental wine. By a parity of reason, 
the king's soldiers and servants cannot justly be dis- 
satisfied because he has not made them all generals 
and prime ministers. And what reason had the Jews 
to complain that God put the Gentiles on a level with, 
or even above them ? May he not, without being ar- 
raigned at the bar of slothful servants, who have buried 
their talents, give a peculiar, extraordinary blessing 
when he pleases, and to whom he pleases ? " Shall 
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why 
hast thou made me thus ?" Shall the foot say, Why 
am I not the head ? and the knee, Why am I not the 
shoulder? Or, to allude to the parable of the labour- 
ers, If God chooses to hire the Gentiles, and send them 
into his favourite vineyard, blessing them with church 
privileges as he did the Jews ; shall the eye of the Jews 
" be evil because God is good" to these newly hired la- 
bourers ?" * May he not do what he pleases with his 
own?" 

To this rational argument St. Paul adds another (ad 
hominem) peculiarly adapted to the Jews, who supposed 
it a kind of sacrilege to deny that, as children of Abra- 

sovereign power, would you not execrate his cruelty as much as you 
would pity his madness ? But, what would you think of the man if 
he made five or ten such vessels for absolute destruction, while he 
made one for absolute salvation, and then assumed the title of gra- 
cious and merciful potter, and called his potting schemes " schemes 
of grace ?" 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER* 



213 



ham, they were absolutely " the chosen nation," and 
" the temple of the Lord." To convince them that God 
was not so partial to the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, as they imagined, the apostle reminds them 
that God had excluded the first-born of those favoured 
patriarchs from the peculiar blessings which by birth- 
right belonged to them : doing it sometimes on account 
of the sin of those first-born, and sometimes previously 
to any personal demerit of theirs, that he might show 
that his purpose, according to election to peculiar privi- 
leges and church prerogatives, does "not stand of works, 
but of him that" chooseth, and " calleth" of his sove- 
reign, distinguishing grace. St. Paul confirms this part, 
of his doctrine by the instance of Ishmael and Isaac, 
who were both sons of Abraham: God having preferred 
Isaac to Ishmael, because Isaac was the child of his 
own promise, and of Abraham's faith by Sarah, a free 
woman, who was a type of grace and the gospel of 
Christ : whereas Ishmael was only the child of Abra- 
ham's natural strength by Agar, an Egyptian bonds- 
woman, who was a type of nature and the Mosaic 
dispensation. 

With peculiar wisdom the apostle dwells upon the still 
more striking instance of Isaac's sons, Esau and Jacob, 
who had not only the same godly father, but the same 
free and pious mother ; the younger of whom was nev- 
ertheless preferred to the elder without any apparent 
reason. He leaves the Jews to think how much more 
this might be the case when there is an apparent cause, 
as in the case of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, Jacob's 
three eldest sons, who, through incest, treachery, and 
murder, forfeited the blessing of the first-born ; a bless- 
ing this which by that forfeiture devolved on Judah, 



214 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



Jacob's fourth son, whose tribe became the first and 
most powerful of all the tribes of Israel, and had of 
consequence the honour of producing the Messiah, " the 
Lion of the tribe of Judah." St. Paul's argument is 
masterly, and runs thus : — If God has again and again 
excluded some of Abraham's posterity from the blessing 
of the peculiar covenant, which he made with that pa- 
triarch concerning the "promised seed;" — if he said, 
"In Isaac," Jacob, and Judah, "shall thy seed [the 
Messiah] be called," and not in Ishmael, Esau, and 
Reuben, the first-born sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Ja- 
cob; how absurd is it in the Jews to suppose that 
merely because they are descended from Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, they shall absolutely share the bless- 
ings of the Messiah's kingdom ? If God excluded from 
the birthright Ishmael the scoffer, Esau the seller of his 
birthright, and Reuben the defiler of Bilhah, his father's 
wife, why might not Israel, (his son called out of 
Egypt,) his first-born among nations, forfeit his birth- 
right through unbelief? And why should not the Gen- 
tile world, God's prodigal son, inherit the blessing of the 
first-born, if they submitted to the obedience of faith, 
and, with the younger son in the parable, returned from 
"the far country" to their fathers house; while the 
elder son insolently quarrelled with God, reproached his 
brother, absolutely refused to come in, and thus made 
his calling void, and his reprobation sure ? 

The apostle's argument is like a two-edged sword. 
With one edge he cuts down the bigotry of the Jews, 
by the above-mentioned appeals to the history of their 
forefathers ; and with the other edge he strikes at their 
unbelief, by an appeal to the destruction of Pharaoh ; 
insinuating that God as Maker, Preserver, and Go- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



215 



vernor of men, has an undoubted right to fix the gra- 
cious or righteous terras on which he will finally 
bestow salvation, or inflict damnation on his rational 
creatures. 

With the greatest propriety St. Paul brings in Pha- 
raoh, to illustrate the odious nature, fatal consequences, 
and dreadful punishment of unbelief. No example was 
better known, or could be more striking to the Jews. 
They had been taught from their infancy, with how 
" much long-suffering" God had " endured" that noto- 
rious unbeliever; "raising him up" supporting him, 
and bearing with his insolence day after day, even after 
he had fitted himself for destruction. They had been 
informed that the Lord had often reprieved that father 
of the faithless, that, in case he again and again 
hardened himself, (as Omniscience saw he would do,) 
he might be again and again scourged, till the madness 
of his infidelity should drive him into the very jaws of 
destruction ; God having on purpose spared him, yea,* 
" raised him up" after every plague, that if he refused 
to yield, he might be made a more conspicuous monu- 
ment of divine vengeance, and be more gloriously over- 
thrown by matchless power. So should " God's name," 

* Is it not strange that Zelotes should infer, from this expression, 
that God had originally " raised up," that is, created Pharaoh, on 
purpose to damn him ? Is it not evident that Pharaoh justly looked 
upon every plague as a death ? Witness his own words, " Intreat 
the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only," 
Exod. x, 17. And if every plague was a death to Pharaoh, was not 
every removal of a plague a kind of resurrection, a raising him up, 
together with his kingdom, from a state of destruction, according to 
these words of the Egyptians, " Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is 
destroyed ?" How reasonable and Scriptural is this sense ! How 
dreadful, I had almost said, how diabolical, is that of Zelotes ! 



216 



BEAUTIES . OF FLETCHER. 



i. e., his adorable perfections and righteous proceeding's, 
" be declared throughout all the earth." And so should 
unbelief appear to all the world in its own odious and 
infernal colours. 

St. Paul having thus indirectly, and with his usual 
prudence and brevity, giveu a double stab to the bigotry 
of the unbelieving Jews, who fancied themselves uncon- 
ditionally elected, and whom he had represented as 
conditionally reprobated ; lest they should mistake his 
meaning as Zelotes does, he concludes the chapter thus : 
" What shall we say then ?" What is the inference 
which I draw from the preceding arguments? One 
which is obvious, namely, this : " That the Gentiles, 
[typified by Jacob the younger brother,] who followed 
not professedly after righteousness, have attained to 
righteousness, even the Christian righteousness which 
is of faith. But Israel," or the Jews, who professedly 
"followed after the law of Mosaic righteousness, [as 
the sportsman Esau did after his game,] have not at- 
tained to the law of Mosaic or Christian righteous- 
ness :" they are neither justified as Jews, nor sanctified 
as Christians. " True ; and the reason is, because God 
had absolutely passed them by from all eternity, that 
he might in time make them vessels of wrath fitted for 
destruction." So insinuates Zelotes. But happily for 
the honour of the gospel, St. Paul declares just the re- 
verse. Ci Wherefore," says he, " did not the reprobated 
Jews attain to righteousness ?" To open the eyes of 
Zelotes, if any thing will, he answers his own question 
thus : " Because they sought it not by faith, but as it 
were by the external works of the Mosaic law" opposed 
to Christian faith. " For they stumbled at that stum- 
bling stone," Christ, who is " a rock of offence" to un- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



217 



believers, and " the rock of ages" to believers. " As it is 
written, Behold I lay in Zion a rock," that some shall, 
through their obstinate unbelief, make " a rock of of- 
fence." And others, through their humble faith, a 
rocky foundation, according to the decrees of condi- 
tional reprobation and election : " He that believeth not 
shall be damned, — and whosoever believeth on him 
shall not be ashamed," Rom. ix, 1-33 ; Mark xvi, 16. 

That Zelotes should mistake the apostle's meaning, 
when it is so clearly fixed in the latter part of the 
chapter, is unaccountable : but that he should support 
by it his peculiar notion of absolute reprobation is really 
astonishing. The unbelieving Jews are undoubtedly 
the persons whom the apostle had first in view when 
he asserted God's right of appointing that obstinate un- 
believers shall be " vessels of wrath." But hear what 
he said of those reprobated Jews to the elected 
Gentiles, in the very next chapter but one. " I speak 
to you Gentiles, &c., if by any means I may provoke 
to emulation them that are my flesh [the Jews] and 
might save some of them. If some of the branches 
[the unbelieving Jews] be broken off, &c, because of 
unbelief they were broken off, and thou [believing 
Gentile] standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but 
fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take 
heed lest he also spare not thee, &c. Continue in his 
goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" and 
treated as a vessel of wrath. " And they also, if they 
abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted in," and 
treated as vessels of mercy, Rom. xi, 13, (fee. 

But what need is there of going to Rom. xi, to show 
the inconsistency of the Calvinistic doctrines of free 
grace in Christ and free wrath in Adam ? of everlast- 
10 • 



218 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ing love to some and everlasting hate to others ? Does 
not Rom. ix itself afford us another powerful antidote 1 
If the elect were from eternity God's beloved people, 
while the non-elect were the devil's people, hated of 
their Maker : and if God's love and hatred are equally- 
unchangeable, whether free agents change from holi- 
ness to sin, or from sin to holiness; what shall we 
make of these words ? "I will call them my people 
which were not my people ; and her beloved which was 
not beloved. And where it was said unto them, Ye are 
not my people : there [upon their believing] shall they 
be called the children of God," Rom. ix, 25, 26. What 
a golden key is here to open our doctrine of conditional 
election, and to shut Zelotes' doctrine of absolute repro- 
bation ! 

Having thus given a general view of what appears 
to me, from conscience, reason, Scripture, and the con- 
text, to be St. Paul's meaning in that deep chapter ; I 
present the reader with a particular and Scriptural 
explanation of some passages in it which do not puzzle 
Honestus a little, and by which Zelotes supports the 
doctrines of bound will and free wrath with some plau- 
sibility. 

I. II. 

It is not [primarily] of Ye will not come to me 
him that willeth, [in God's that you might have life, 
way,] nor is it [at all] of John v, 40. Whosoever 
him that willeth, [in oppo- will, let him come, Rev. 
sition to God's will, as the xxii, 17. I have set before 
self-righteous Jews did,] you life and death, &c., 
Rom. ix, 16. choose, Deut. xxx, 19. I 

would, &c, and ye icoidd 
not, Luke xiii, 34. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



219 



It is not [primarily] of 
him that runneth, but* of 
God that showeth mercy, 
Rom. ix, 16. 



[EJieww] I will have mer- 
cy on whom I will [or ra- 
ther eteu, I should] have 
mercy, Rom. ix, 15. 



[OtKTeipTjoo] I will have 
compassion on whom I will 



II. 

I went, &c., lest by any 
means I should run or had 
run in vain, Gal. ii, 2. So 
run that [through mercy] 
you may obtain, 1 Cor. ix, 
24. 

Whoso forsaketh his sin 
shall have mercy, Prov. 
xxviii, 13. Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and, &c., 
the Lord will have mercy 
upon him, Isa. lv, 7. He 
shall have judgment with- 
out mercy that hath show- 
ed no mercy, James ii, 13. 
All the paths of the Lord 
are mercy to such as keep 
his covenant, Psalm xxv, 
10. 

As the heaven is high 
above the earth ; so great 



* In familiar and Scripture language the effect is frequently 
ascribed to the chief cause ; while, for brevity's sake, inferior causes 
or agents are passed over in silence. Thus David says, " Except 
the Lord build the house, their labour is but vain that build it." 
St. Paul says, " I laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God." And 
we say, " Admiral Hawke has beat the French fleet." Would it 
not be absurd in Zelotes to strain these expressions so as to make 
absolutely nothing of the mason's work in the building of a house ; 
of the apostle's preaching in the conversion of those Gentiles ; and 
of the bravery of the officers and sailors in the victory got over the 
French by the English admiral ? It is, nevertheless, upon such fri- 
volous conclusions as these that Zelotes generally rests the enormous 
weight of his peculiar doctrines. 



220 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



I. II. 

[or rather oinreipu, I should] is his mercy toward them 
have compassion, Romans that fear him, Psalm ciii, 
ix, 15. 11. The things that be- 

long to thy peace are hid 
from thine eyes, &c, because thou knewest not the 
time of thy visitation, Luke xix, 44. How is it that 
ye do not discern this time, yea, and why even of your- 
selves judge ye not what is right ? Luke xii, 56, 57. 
Hear, O heavens, (fee, I have nourished children, and 
they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his 
owner, &c., but Israel doth not know, my people doth 
not consider. It is a people of no understanding ; 
therefore he that formed them will show them no 
favour, Isa. i, 3; xxvii, 11. And God said to Solo- 
mon, Because thou hast asked for thyself understand- 
ing, &c, lo, I have given thee a wise and understand- 
ing heart, 1 Kings iii, 11, 12. Because he considereth, 
&c, he shall not die, — he shall surely live, Ezek. xviii, 
28. [Who can help seeing, through this cloud of scrip- 
tures, that " God has mercy on whom he should have 
mercy," according to his divine attributes ; extending 
initial mercy to all, according to his long-suffering and 
impartiality ; and showing eternal mercy, according to 
his holiness and truth, to them that use and improve 
their talent of understanding, so as to love him and 
keep his commandments?] 

I. II. 
The children being not Thus saith the Lord, — 
yet born, neither having Did I plainly appear to the 
done any good or evil, that house of thy father, &c, 
the purpose of God accord- and did I choose him out 
ing to election might stand of all the tribes of Israel to 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



221 



I. 

not of works, but of him 
that calleth [i. e., that God 
might show, he may and 
will choose some of Abra- 
ham's posterity to some 
peculiar privileges which 
he does not confer upon 
others : and likewise to 
teach us that grace and 
the new man mystically 
typified by Jacob shall 
have the reward of the in- 
heritance, — a reward this, 
which fallen nature and 
the old man, mystically 
typified by Esau, shall 
never receive : to teach us 
this] it was said to Rebec- 
ca, The elder shall serve 
the younger : [in his poste- 
rity,* though not in his per- 

* Mr. Henry says with great truth, " All this choosing" of Jacob 
and refusing of Esau " was typical, and intended to shadow forth 
some other election and rejection." And although he was a Cal- 
vinist, he does, in many respects, justice to St. Paul's meaning. 
" This difference," says he, " that was put between Jacob and Esau, 
he [the apostle] farther illustrates by a quotation from Mai. i, 2, 
where it is said, not of Jacob and Esau the persons, but the Edom- 
ites and Israelites their posterity: 'Jacob have I loved, and Esau 
have I hated.' The people of Israel were taken into the covenant 
of peculiarity, had the land of Canaan given them, were blessed with 
the more signal appearances of God for them in special protection, 
supplies, and deliverances, while the Edomites were rejected, [from 
the covenant of peculiarity,] had no temple, altars, priests, prophets ; 



II. 

be my priest, &c. Why 
kick ye at my sacrifice 1 ? 
Wherefore the Lord God 
saithj / said indeed that 
thy house should walk be- 
fore me for ever. But now 
the Lord saith, Be it far 
from me; for them that 
honour me I will honour ; 
and they that despise me 
shall be lightly esteemed, 
1 Sam. ii, 27, &c. Again : 
the Lord said to Samuel, 
[I have not chosen,] I have 
refused him, [Eliab,] for 
the Lord seeth not as man 
seeth : the Lord looketh at 
the heart [and chooseth in 
consequence : accordingly, 
when] " Jesse made seven 
of his sons to pass before 



222 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



I. II. 

son :] that is, the younger the Lord, Samuel said, 
shall have the blessing of The Lord hath not chosen 

210 such particular care of them, &c. Others understand it of the 
election and rejection of particular persons ; some loved and others 
hated from eternity. But the apostle speaks of Jacob and Esau, not 
in their own persons, but as ancestors : Jacob the people and Esau 
the people : nor doth God damn any, or decree so to do, merely 
because he will do it, without any reason taken from their own de- 
serts, &c. The choosing of Jacob the younger was to intimate that 
the Jews, though the natural seed of Abraham, and the first-born of 
the church, should be laid aside : and the Gentiles, who were as the 
younger brother, should be taken in their stead, and have the birth- 
right and blessing." He concludes his comment upon the whole 
chapter by these words, which exactly answer to the double key I 
have given to the reader : " Upon the whole matter the unbelieving 
Jews have no reason to quarrel with God for rejecting them : they 
had a. fair offer of righteousness, and life, and salvation, made upon 
gospel terms, which they did not like, and would not come up to ; 
and therefore if they perish they may thank themselves. Their 
blood is upon their own heads." 

What precedes is pure truth, and strongly confirms my doctrine. 
But what follows is pure Calvinism, and shows the inconsistency of 
the most judicious writers in that scheme. " Were the Jews hard- 
ened ? It was because it was his own (God's) pleasure to deny them 
softening grace, &c. Two sorts of vessels God forms out of the 
great lump of fallen mankind : (1.) « Vessels of wrath :* vessels filled 
with wrath, as a vessel of wine is a vessel filled with wine, « full 
of the fury of the Lord,' &c. (2.) 4 Vessels of mercy,' filled with 
mercy." And again : " he (the apostle) answers by resolving all 
into the divine sovereignty. We are the thing formed, and he is the 
former, and it does not become us to challenge or arraign his wisdom 
in ordering and disposing of us into this or that shape or figure." 
That is, in plain English, free wrath, or, to speak smoothly as a 
Calvinist, divine sovereignty may order and dispose us into the shape 
of vessels of wrath before we have done either good or evil. How 
could Mr. Henry thus contradict himself, and write for and against 
truth ? Why, he was a moderate Calvinist : as moderate, he wrote 
glorious truths ; and, as a Calvinist, horrid insinuations. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



223 



I. 

the first-born. And it was 
accordingly conferred upon 
Jacob in these words, Be 
lord over thy brethren, 
Gen. xxvii, 29. To con- 
clude, therefore, from Ja- 
cob's superior blessing, that 
Esau was absolutely cursed 
and reprobated of God, is 
as absurd as to suppose 
that Manasseh, Joseph's 
eldest son, was also an ab- 
solute reprobate, because 
Ephraim, his younger bro- 
ther, had Jacob's chief bless- 
ing: for the old patriarch 
refusing to put his right 
hand upon the head of 
Manasseh, said, " Truly 
his younger brother shall 
be greater than he" Gen. 
xlviii, 19. But would Ze- 
lotes himself infer from 
such words that Manasseh 
was personally appointed 
from all eternity to disbe- 
lieve and be damned, and 
Ephraim to believe and 
be saved ; that the purpose 
of God according to abso- 
lute reprobation and elec- 
tion might stand " not of 



II. 

these, 1 Sam. xvi, 7, 10. 
The Lord hath sought 
him a man after his own 
heart, [David,] because 
thou [Saul] hast not kept 
that which the Lord com- 
manded thee. Once more : 
the Lord has rent the king- 
dom of Israel from thee 
this day, and hath given 
it to a neighbour of thine 
that is better than thou," 
chap, xiii, 14 ; xv, 28. 

The kingdom of Israel 
was an unpromised gift to 
Saul and to David, and yet 
God's election to and re- 
probation from that dignity 
were according to disposi- 
tions and works. How 
much more may this be 
said of God's election to or 
reprobation from a crown 
of glory ! — a crown this, 
which God hath promised 
by way of reward to them 
that love him ; refusing it 
by way of punishment to 
them that hate him ; whom 
he clothes in hell with 
shame and with a venge- 
ful curse, according to their 



224 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



I. 

works,* but of him that 
capriciously and irresist- 
ibly calleth" some to finish- 
ed salvation in Christ, and 
others to finished damna- 
tion in Adam ? That God 
abhors such a proceeding 
is evident from the scrip- 
tures which fill my left 
scale, and in particular 
from the opposite texts. 



II. 

works and his own .declara- 
tion which follows : — "Yet 
saith the [Predestinarian] 
house of Israel, The way 
of the Lord is not equal. 
O house of Israel, are 
not my ways equal 7 Are 
not your ways unequal? 
Therefore I will judge you 
every one according to his 
ways. Repent and turn, 
&c, so iniquity shall not 
be your ruin," Ezek. xviii, 
29, <fcc. " I will do unto 



* This phrase, " That the purpose of God according to election 
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth," is to be under- 
stood merely of those blessings which distinguishing grace bestows 
upon some men and not upon others, and which do not necessarily 
affect their eternal salvation or their eternal damnation. In tbis 
sense it was that God, for the above-mentioned reasons, preferred 
Jacob to Esau. In this sense he still prefers a Jew to a Hottentot, 
and a Christian to a Jew; giving a Christian the Old and New 
Testament, while the Jew has only the Old, and the Hottentot has 
neither. Far from denying the reality of this sovereign, distinguish- 
ing grace, which is independent on all works, and flows entirely 
from the superabounding kindness of " him that calleth," I have 
particularly maintained it.t This is St. Paul's edifying meaning, to 
which I have not the least objection. But when Zelotes stretches 
the phrase so far as to make it mean that God ordains people to 
eternal life or eternal death, "not of works, but of him that" with- 
out reason forcibly calleth some to believe and be saved, leaving 
others necessarily to disbelieve and be damned : when Zelotes does 
this, I say, my reason and conscience are equally frighted, and I beg 
leave to dissent from him, for the reasons mentioned in this chapter. 

t See Fletcher's Works, vol. i, p. 505. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



225 



I. II. 

them according to their 
way ; and according to 
their deserts [secundum, 
merit a] will I judge them, 
and they shall know that 
I am the Lord/' Ezek. vii, 
27. To these scriptures 
you may add all the mul- 
titude of texts where God 
declares that he will judge, 
i. e., justify or condemn, 
reward or punish, finally 
elect or finally reprobate 
men for, by, according to, 
or because of, their works. 
It is written, Jacob have God is love. God is 
/ loved, but Esau have I loving to every m,an, and 
hated, Rom. ix, 13. his tender mercies [in the 

Zelotes, who catches at accepted time] are over all 
whatever seems to counte- his works. Yet the chil- 
nance his doctrine of free dren of thy people say, 
wrath, thinks that this The way of the Lord is 
scripture demonstrates the not equal: but as for them, 
electing and reprobating their way is not equal, &c., 
partiality on which his 1 John iv, 8 ; Psalm cxlv, 
favourite doctrines are in the common prayers; 
founded. To see his mis- Ezek. xxxiii, 17. 
take, we need only consider that, in the Scripture lan- 
guage, a love of preference is emphatically called love ; 
and an inferior degree of love is comparatively called 
hatred. Pious Jacob was not such a churlish man as 
positively to hate any body, much less Leah, his cousin 
10* 



226 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



and his wife : nevertheless, we read, " The Lord saw 
that Leah was hated : the Lord hath heard that I was 
hated : now, therefore, my husband will love me :" 
i. e., Jacob will prefer me to Rachel, his barren wife. 
Gen. xxix, 31, 32. Again : Moses makes a law con- 
cerning " a man that hath two wives, one beloved and 
another hated," without intimating that it is wrong in 
the husband to hate, that is, to be less fond of one of 
his wives than of the other, Deut. xxi, 15. Once more : 
our Lord was not the chaplain of the old murderer, that 
he should command us positively to hate our fathers, 
mothers, and wives : for he who thus " hateth another 
is a murderer." Nevertheless, he not only says, " He 
that hateth his life [that invaluable gift of God] shall 
keep it unto life eternal; and he that loveth his life 
shall lose it :" but he declares, " If any man hate not 
his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and 
brethren, and sisters, he cannot be my disciple," Luke 
xiv, 26. Now, Christ evidently means, that whosoever 
does not love his father, &c, and his own life less than 
him, cannot be his sincere disciple. By a similar idiom 
it is said, " Esau have I hated :" an expression this, 
which no more means that God had absolutely rejected 
Esau, and appointed him to the pit of destruction, than 
Christ meant that we should absolutely throw away our 
lives, reject our fathers, wives, and children, and aban- 
don them to destruction. 

II. I. 

* Whom he will he hard- The god of this world 
eneth, Rom. ix, 18. [not the Almighty] hath 

* The reader is desired to take notice, that in this and the follow- 
ing paragraphs, where I produce scriptures expressive of God's just 
wrath, I have shifted the numbers that mark to which axiom the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



227 



II. 

That is, God judicially 
gives up to a reprobate 
mind whom he will, not 
according to Calvinistic 
caprice, but according to 
the rectitude of his own 
nature: and according to 
this rectitude displayed in 
the gospel, he will give 
up all those who, by ob- 
stinately hardening their 
hearts to the last, turn the 
day of salvation into a 
day of final provocation, 
see Psalm xcv, 8, &c. 

He hath blinded their 
eyes, and hardened their 
hearts, that they should 
not see with their eyes, 
nor understand with their 
heart, and be converted, 
and I should heal them, 
John xii, 40. 

That is, he hath judi- 
cially given them up to 
their own blindness and 



[by their own free consent] 
blinded the minds of them 
that believe not. Now is 
the day of salvation. De- 
spisest thou the riches of 
God's goodness, forbear- 
ance, and long-suffering ? 
not knowing that the good- 
ness of God leadeth thee 
to repentance? But after 
thy hardness, and impeni- 
tent heart, treasurest up 
unto thyself wrath, 2 Cor. 
iv, 4 ; vi, 2 ; Rom. ii, 4, 5. 

In them is fulfilled the 
prophecy of Esaias, who 
says, By hearing ye shall 
hear, and shall not under- 
stand ; and seeing, ye shall 
see, and shall not perceive. 
For this people's heart is 
waxed gross ; [through 
their obstinately resisting 
the light;] and their ears 
are dull of hearing, and 



passage belongs. And this I have done, (1.) Because there is no 
free wrath in God. (2.) Because, when there is wrath in him, 
man's perverseness is the just cause of it. And, (3.) Because, in 
point of evil, man has the wretched diabolical honour of being first 
cause ; and therefore, No. I. is his shameful prerogative, according 
to the principles laid down in chapter xii, section i. 



228 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



i 

their eyes they have clos- 
ed, lest at any time they 
should see with their eyes, 
and hear with their ears, 
and should understand 
with their heart, and should 
be converted, and I should 
heal them, Matt, xiii, 14, 15. 

Pharaoh hardened his 
heart, and hearkened not, 
Exod. viii, 15. Zedekiah 
stiffened his neck, and 
hardened his heart from 
turning- unto the Lord, 
2 Chron. xxxvi, 13. Take 
heed lest any of you be hardened through the deceit- 
fulness of sin, Heb. iii, 18. Happy is the man that 
feareth alway; but he that hardeneth his heart [as 
Pharaoh did] shall fall into mischief, [God will give 
him up,] Prov. xxviii, 14. They are without excuse : 
because, when they knew God, they glorified him not 
as God, &c. Wherefore God also gave them up to 
uncleanness, &c. For this cause God gave them up 
to vile affections, &c. And even as they did not like 
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over 
to a reprobate mind, Rom. i, 20, 28. 



II. 

hardness. They had said 
so long, We will not see, 
that he said at last in his 
just anger, They shall not 
see; determined to with- 
draw the abused, forfeited 
light of his grace ; and so 
they were blinded. 

The Lord [in the above- 
mentioned sense] harden- 
ed Pharaoh's heart, [for his 
unparalleled cruelty to Is- 
rael,] Exod. i, 10, 22 ; vii, 
13. See the next note. 



II. 

Thou wilt say then un- 
to me, Why does he yet 
find fault? For w T ho hath 
resisted his will ? Rom. ix, 
19. 



I. 

Shall not the Judge of 
all the earth do right? Gen. 
xviii, 25. That thou might- 
est be justified in thy say- 
ing, and clear when thou 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



229 



II. 

The rigid Calvinists tri- 
umph greatly in this ob- 
jection started by St. Paul. 
They suppose that it can 
be reasonably levelled at 
no doctrine but their own, 
which teaches, that God 
by irresistible decrees has 
unconditionally ordained 
some men to eternal life, 
and others to eternal death ; 
and therefore their doctrine 
is that of the apostle. To 
show the absurdity of this 
conclusion, I need only re- 
mind the reader once more, 
that in this chapter St. Paul 
establishes two doctrines : 
(1.) That God. may admit 
whom he will into the 
covenant of peculiarity, 



I. 

art judged, Psa. li, 4. Com. 
Prayer. 

Who but Zelotes could 
justify an imaginary being 
that should, by the chan- 
nel of irresistible decrees, 
pour sin and wrath into 
vessels made on purpose to 
hold both ; and should call 
himself the God of love, 
the Holy One of Israel, and 
a God of judgment ? Nay, 
who would not detest a 
king, who should abso- 
lutely contrive the con- 
tracted wickedness and 
crimes of his subjects, that 
he might justly sentence 
them to eternal torments, 
to show his sovereignty 
and power ? 



out of pure, distinguishing, 

sovereign grace: and, (2.) That he had an absolute 
right of hardening whom he will upon gospel terms, 
i. e., of taking the talent of *softening grace from all 

*Mr. Henry comments thus upon these words: " I will harden his 
heart," that is, " withdraw softening grace" which God undoubt- 
edly did upon just provocation. Whence it follows that, inconsist- 
ent Calvinists being judges, Pharaoh himself had once softening 
grace ; it being impossible for God to withdraw from Pharaoh's 
heart what never was there. Query. Was this softening grace, 
which God withdrew from Pharaoh, of the reprobating or of the 
electing kind ? 



230 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



that imitate the obstinate unbelief of Pharaoh; such 
inflexible unbelievers being the only people whom God 
will harden or give up to a reprobate mind. Now in 
both those respects the objection proposed is pertinent, 
as the apostle's answers plainly show. With regard to 
the first doctrine, that is, the doctrine of that distin- 
guishing grace which puts more honour upon one ves- 
sel than upon another; calling Abraham to be the 
Lord's " pleasant vessel," while Lot or Moab is only his 
" wash pot f the apostle answers : " Nay, but, O man, 
who art thou who repliest against God ? shall the thing 
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made 
me thus ?" Why am I a " wash pot," and not a " plea- 
sant vessel?" "Hath not the potter power over the 
clay ?" (fee. Besides, is it not a blessing to be compara- 
tively a " vessel to dishonour ?" Had not Ishmael and 
Esau a blessing, though it was inferior to that of Isaac 
and Jacob ? Is not a wash pot as good in its place as 
a drinking cup ? Is not a righteous Gentile — a Mel- 
chisedec, or a Job, &c, as acceptable to God, according 
to his dispensation, as a devout Jew and a sincere 
Christian according to theirs? With respect to the 
second doctrine, that of hardening obstinate unbelievers, 
and " making his wrathful power known" upon them : 
after tacitly granting that it is impossible to resist God's 
absolute will, the apostle intimates in his laconic, and 
yet comprehensive way of writing, that God has a right 
to find fault with, and display his wrathful power upon 
hardened sinners, because u he hardens" none but such 
as have personally made themselves " vessels of wrath," 
and " fitted themselves for destruction" by doing despite 
to the Spirit of his grace, instead of improving their day 
of initial salvation : and he insinuates that even then, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



231 



God, instead of presently dealing with them according 
to their deserts, "endures them with much long- 
suffering," which, according to St. Peter's doctrine, is 
to be counted a degree of salvation. Therefore in 
both senses the objection is pertinently proposed, 
and justly answered by the apostle, without the 
help of sovereign free wrath and Calvinistic repro- 
bation. 



I. 

Hath not the potter 
power over the clap, of the 
same lump to make one 
vessel unto honour and 
another unto dishonour? 
Rom. ix, 21. 

I have observed again 
and again that the apostle 
with his two-edged sword 
defends two doctrines : (1.) 
The right which God, our 
sovereign benefactor, has 
to give five talents, or one 
talent, to whom he pleases, 
that is, to admit some peo- 
ple to the covenant of pe- 
culiarity, while he leaves 
others under a more gene- 
ral dispensation of grace 
and favour. Thus a Jew 
was once a vessel to hon- 
our, a person honoured far 
above a Gentile, and a 
Gentile, in comparison to 



II. 

The vessel that he [the 
potter] made of clap, was 
marred in the hand of 
the potter; so he made 
it again into another ves- 
sel, as seemed good to the 
potter, &c. O house of 
Israel, cannot I do with 
you as this potter, says the 
Lord, &c. At what instant 
I shall speak concerning a 
nation, &c.,to destroy ; [for 
its wickedness ;] if that na- 
tion, against whom I have 
pronounced, turn fxom their 
evil, / taill repent of the 
evil that I thought to do 
unto them. And at what 
instant I shall speak con- 
cerning a nation, &c, to 
build it, if it do evil in my 
sight, that it obey not my 
voice, then I will repent 
of the good wherewith I 



232 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



I. 

a Jew, might be called " a 
vessel to dishonour." Mo- 
ab, to use again the psalm- 
ist's expression, was once 
only God's "wash pot," 
Psa. Ix, 8, while Israel was 
his " pleasant vessel." But 
now the case is altered: 
the Jews are nationally be- 
come the " vessel wherein 
there is no pleasure," and 
the Gentiles are the " plea- 
sant vessel." And where 
is the injustice of this pro- 
ceeding ? If a potter may 
make of the same lump of 
clay what vessel he pleases, 
some for the dining room, 
and others for the meanest 
apartment, all good and 
useful in their respective 
places; why should not 
God have the same liberty? 
Why should he not, if he 
chooses it, place some moral 
vessels above others, and 
raise the Gentiles to the 
honour of being his pecu- 
liar people ? An unspeak- 
able honour this, which 
was before granted to the 
Jews only. 



II. 

said I would benefit them, 
Jer. xviii, 4. 

When St. Paul wrote 
Rom. ix, 21, he had pro- 
bably an eye to the prece- 
ding passage of Jeremiah, 
which is alone sufficient 
to rectify the mistakes of 
Zelotes ; there being scarce 
a stronger text to prove that 
God's decrees respecting our 
salvation and destruction 
are conditional. Never did 
"Sergeant if" guard the 
genuine doctrines of grace 
more valiantly, or give Cal- 
vinism a more desperate 
thrust than he does in the 
potter's house by the pen 
of Jeremiah. However, lest 
that prophet's testimony 
should not appear suffi- 
ciently weighty to Zelotes, 
I strengthen it by an ex- 
press declaration of God 
himself : — 

"Have I any pleasure 
at all that the wicked 
should die, saith the Lord ; 
and not that he should re- 
turn from his ways and 
live? Yet ye say, The 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



23a 



I. 

The apostle's second 
doctrine respects "vessels 
of mercy and vessels of 
wrath," which in the pre- 
sent case must be carefully 
distinguished from the "ves- 
sels to honour," or to nobler 
uses, and "the vessels to 
dishonour," or to less noble 
uses: and, if I mistake not, 
this distinction is one of 
those things which, as St. 
Peter observes, are "hard 
to be understood in Paul's 



II. 

way of the Lord is not 
equal [in point of election 
to eternal life, and appoint- 
ment to eternal* death.] 
Hear now, O house of Is- 
rael, Is not my way equal 1 
When a righteous man 
turneth away from his 
righteousness, (fee, for his 
iniquity shall he die. Again: 
when a wicked man turn- 
eth from his wickedness, 
&c, he shall save his soul 
alive," Ezek. xviii, 23, &c. 



epistles." The importance 

of it appears from this consideration : God may, as a 
just and gracious sovereign, absolutely make a moral 
vessel for a more or less honourable use, as he pleases ; 
such a preference of one vessel to another being no 
more inconsistent with divine goodness, than the king's 
appointing one of his subjects lord of the bed-chamber, 
and another only groom of the stable, is inconsistent 
with royal good nature. But this is not the case with 
respect to "vessels of mercy" and "vessels of wrath." 
If you insinuate, with Zelotes, that an absolute God, to 
show his absolute love and wrath, absolutely made some 
men to fill them unconditionally and eternally with 
love and mercy, and others to fill them unconditionally 
and eternally with hatred and wrath, by way of re- 
ward and punishment, you "change the truth of God 
into a lie," and serve the great Diana of the Calvinists 
more than the righteous Judge of all the earth. What- 



234 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ever Zelotes may think of it, God never made an adult 
a vessel of eternal mercy that did not first submit to 
the obedience of faith ; nor did he ever absolutely look 
upon any man as a vessel of wrath, that had not by 
personal, obstinate unbelief, first fitted himself for 
destruction. Considering then the comparison of the 
potter as referring- in a secondary sense to the 11 vessels 
of mercy," and to the " vessels of wrath," it conveys the 
following rational and Scriptural ideas : — May not God, 
as the righteous maker of moral vessels, fill with mercy 
or with wrath whom he will, according to his essential 
wisdom and rectitude ? May he not shed abroad his 
pardoning mercy and love in the heart of a believing 
Gentile, as well as in the breast of a believing Jew ? 
And may he not give up to a reprobate mind, yea, fill 
with the sense of his just wrath a stubborn Jew, a Caia- 
phas, as well as a refractory Gentile, a Pharaoh ? Have 
not Jews and Gentiles a common original? And may 
not the Author of their common existence, as their im- 
partial lawgiver, determine to save or damn individuals, 
upon the gracious and equitable terms of the gospel dis- 
pensations? Is he bound absolutely to give all the 
blessings of the Messiah's kingdom to Abraham's pos- 
terity, and absolutely to reprobate the rest of the world ? 
Has a Jew more right to " reply against God" than a 
Gentile ? When God propounds his terms of salvation, 
does it become any man to " say to him that formed 
him, Why hast thou made me thus" subject to thy go- 
vernment ? Why must I submit to thy terms ? If God 
without injustice could appoint that Christ should de- 
scend from Isaac, and not from Ishmael; if, before Esau 
and Jacob had done any good or evil, he could fix that 
the blood of Jacob, and not that of Esau, should run in 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



235 



his Son's veins, though Esau was Isaac's child as well 
as Jacob ; how much more may he, without breaking 
the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, fix 
that the free-willing believer, whether Jew or Gentile, 
shall be a " vessel of mercy prepared for glory," chiefly 
by free grace ; and that the free- willing unbeliever shall 
be a " vessel of wrath, fitted," chiefly by free will, " for 
just destruction ?" Is not this doctrine agreeable to our 
Lord's expostulation, With "the light of life, which 
lightens every man, you will not come unto me that 
you might have life — more abundant life — yea, life 
evermore ?" Does it not perfectly tally with the great, 
irrespective decrees of conditional election and reproba- 
tion, " He that believeth, and is baptized," that is,* he 
that shows his faith by correspondent works, when his 
Lord comes to reckon with him, " shall be saved : and 
he that believeth not," though he were baptized, " shall 
be damned ?" And is it not astonishing, that when St. 
Paul's meaning in Rom. ix can be so easily opened by 
the silver and golden key, which God himself has 
sent us from heaven, I mean reason and Scripture, so 
many pious divines should go to Geneva, and humbly 
borrow Calvin's wooden and iron key, I mean his elec- 
tion and reprobation ? Two keys these, which are in 
as great repute among injudicious Protestants, as the 
keys of his holiness are among simple Papists. Nor do 
I see what great difference there is between the Romish 
and the Geneva keys : if the former open and shut a 
fool's paradise, or a knave's purgatory, do not the latter 
shut us all up in finished salvation or finished damna- 
tion? 



236 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ABSURDITY OF SUPPOSING THAT THERE CAN 
BE ANY FREE WRATH IN A JUST AND GOOD GOD. 

I shall close the preceding scriptures by some argu- 
ments which show the absurdity of supposing that there 
can be any free wrath in a just and good God. 
(1.) When Adam, with all his posterity in his loins, 
came forth out of the hands of his Maker, he was pro- 
nounced very good, as being " made in the likeness of 
God," and " after the image of him" who is a perfect 
compound of every possible perfection. God spake 
those words in time ; but if we believe Zelotes, the sup- 
posed decree of absolute, personal rejection, was made 
before time ; God having fixed, from all eternity, that 
Esau should be absolutely hated. Now, as Esau stood 
in and with Adam, before he fell in and with him; and 
as God could not but consider him as standing and 
righteous, before he considered him fallen and sin- 
ful; it necessarily follows, either that Calvinism is a 
system of false doctrine ; or, that the God of love, holi- 
ness, and equity, once hated his righteous creature, once 
reprobated the innocent, and said, by his decree, " Cain, 
Esau, Saul, and Judas, are very good, for they are 
seminal parts of Adam my son, whom I pronounce 
very good, Gen. i, 31. But I actually hate those parts 
of my unsullied workmanship: without any actual 
cause, I detest mine own perfect image. Yea, I turn 
my eyes from their present complete goodness, that I 
may hate them for their future pre-ordained iniquity." 
Suppose the God of love had transformed himself into 
the evil principle of the Manichees, what could he have 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



237 



done worse than thus to hate with immortal hatred, and 
absolutely to reprobate his innocent, his pure, his spot- 
less offspring, at the very time in which he pronounced 
it very good ? If Zelotes shudders at his own doc- 
trine, and finds himself obliged to grant, that so long, 
at least, as Adam stood, Cain, Esau, Saul, and Judas 
stood with him, and in him were actually loved, condi- 
tionally chosen, and wonderfully blessed of God in para- 
dise ; it follows that the doctrine of God's everlasting 
hate, and of the eternal, absolute rejection of those whom 
Zelotes considers as the four great reprobates, is founded 
on the grossest contradiction imaginable. 

2. But Zelotes possibly complains that I am unfair, 
because I point out the deformity of his " doctrine of 
grace," without saying one word of its beauty. ".Why 
do you not," says he, " speak of God's absolute, ever- 
lasting love to Jacob, as well as of his absolute, ever- 
lasting hate to Esau, Pharaoh, and Judas ? Is it right 
to make always the worst of things ?" Indeed, Zelotes, 
if I am not mistaken, your absolute election is full as 
subversive of Christ's gospel as your absolute reproba- 
tion. The Scripture informs us, that when Adam fell 
he lost the favour, as well as the image of God ; and 
that he became a " vessel of wrath" from head to foot : 
but if everlasting, changeless love still embraced innu- 
merable parts of his seed, his fall was by no means so 
grievous and universal as the Scriptures represent it : 
for " a multitude, which no man can number," ever 
stood, and shall ever stand on the rock of ages : a rock 
this which, if we believe Zelotes, is made of unchange- 
able, absolute, sovereign, everlasting love for the elect, 
and of unchangeable, absolute, sovereign, everlasting 
wrath for the reprobates. 



238 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



3. But this is only part of the mischief that necessa- 
rily flows from the fictitious doctrines of grace. They 
make the cup of trembling, which our Lord drank in 
Gethsemane, and the sacrifice which he offered on Cal- 
vary, in a great degree insignificant. Christ's office as 
high priest was to sprinkle the burning throne with his 
precious blood, and to "turn away. wrath" by the sacri- 
fice of himself: but if there never was either a burning 
throne, or any wrath flaming against the elect ; if un- 
changeable love ever embraced them, how greatly is 
the oblation of Christ's blood depreciated 1 Might he 
not almost have saved himself the trouble of coming 
down from heaven to "turn away a wrath" which never 
flamed against the elect, and which shall never cease to 
flame against the reprobates 7 

4. From God's preaching the gospel to our first 
parents it appears that they were of the number of the 
elect, and Zelotes himself is of opinion that they be- 
longed to the little flock. If this was the case, accord- 
ing to the doctrine of free, sovereign, unchangeable, 
everlasting love to the elect, it necessarily follows, that 
Adam himself was never a child of wrath. Nor does 
it require more faith to believe that our first parents 
were God's pleasant children, when they sated them- 
selves with forbidden fruit, than to believe that David 
and Bathsheba were persons after God's own heart, 
when they defiled Uriah's bed. Hence it follows that 
the doctrine of God's everlasting love, in the Crispian 
sense of the word, is absolutely false, or that Adam 
himself was a child of changeless, everlasting love, 
when he made his wife, the serpent, and his own belly, 
bis trinity under the fatal tree : while Cain was a child 
of everlasting wrath, when God said of him, in his 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



239 



father's loins, that he was very good. Thus we still 
find ourselves at the shrine of the great Diana of the 
Calvinists, singing the new song of salvation and dam- 
nation finished from everlasting to everlasting, accord- 
ing to the doctrine laid down by the Westminster 
divines in their catechism : " God from all eternity did, 
by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, 
freely and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass." 

5. This leads me to a third argument. If God from 
all eternity did " unchangeably ordain' 1 all events, and, 
in particular, that the man Christ should absolutely die 
to save a certain, fixed number of men, who (by the 
by) never were children of wrath, and therefore never 
were in the least danger of perishing : if he unaltera- 
bly appointed that the devil should tempt, and abso- 
lutely prevail over a certain fixed number of men who 
were children of wrath, before temptation and sin made 
them so : if this is the case, I say, how idle was Christ's 
redeeming work ! How foolish the tempter's restless 
labour ! How absurd Zelotes' preaching ! How full 
of inconsistency his law messages of wrath to the elect, 
and his gospel messages of free grace to the reprobates ! 
And how true the doctrine, which has lately appeared 
in print, and sums up the Crispian gospel in these sen- 
tences : — Ye, elect, shall be saved, do what ye will ; 
and ye, reprobates, shall be damned, do what ye can ; 
for in the day of his power the Almighty will make 
you all absolutely willing to go to the place which he 
has unconditionally ordained you for, be it heaven or 
hell ; God, if we believe the Westminster divines, in 
their catechism, "having unchangeably foreordained 
whatever comes to pass in time, especially concerning 
angels and men." An unscriptural doctrine this, which 



240 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



charges all sin and damnation upon God, and perfectly 
agrees with the doctrine of the consistent Calvinists, 
I mean the doctrine of finished salvation and finished 
damnation, thus summed up by Bishop Burnet in his 
exposition of the seventeenth article : " They think, 
&c., that he," God, « decreed Adam's sin, the lapse of 
his posterity, and Christ's death, together with the sal- 
vation and damnation of such men as should be most 
for his own glory : that to those that were to be saved 
he decreed to give such efficacious assistances as should 
certainly put them in the way of salvation ; and to 
those whom he rejected, he decreed to give such assist- 
ances and means only as should render them inexcusa- 
ble." Just as if those people could ever be inexcusable 
who only do what their almighty Creator has "un- 
changeably ordained !" 



CHAPTER XV. 

MR. TOPLADY'S CHRISTIAN AND PHILOSOPHICAL 
NECESSITY CONSIDERED. 

Mr. Toplady's scheme of Christian and philo- 
sophical necessity makes God the author of every sin. 
Says Mr. Toplady, page 12 : — 

" If we distinguish accurately, this seems to have 
been the order in which the most judicious of the 
ancients considered the whole matter: — First, God; 
then his will; then fate, or the solemn ratification 
of his will, by passing and establishing it into an un- 
changeable decree ; then creation ; then necessity ; 
i. e., such an indissoluble concatenation of secondary 
causes and effects as has a native tendency to secure 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



241 



the certainty of all events, as one wave is impelled 
by another ; then providence ; i. e., the omnipresent, 
omnivigilant, all-directing superintendency of divine 
wisdom and power, carrying" the whole preconcerted 
scheme into actual execution by the subservient media- 
tion of second causes, which were created for that end." 

Upon this Mr. Fletcher observes — I would only ask 
a few questions : (1.) If all our actions, and conse- 
quently all our sins, compose the seventh link of the 
chain ; — if the first link is God ; the second his will ; 
the third his decree ; the fourth the creation ; the fifth 
necessity; the sixth providence ; and the seventh sin; 
is it not as easy to trace the pedigree of sin through 
providence, necessity, creation, God's decree, and 
God's will, up to God himself, as it is to trace back 
the genealogy of the prince of Wales from George III., 
by George II., up to George I. ? And upon this plan is 
it not clear that sin is as much the real offspring of 
God, as the prince of Wales is the real offspring of 
George the First? (2.) If this is the case, is not God 
the author of sin by means of his will, his decree, his 
creation, his necessitation, and his providence ? Does 
it not unavoidably follow that sin is the offspring of 
God's providence, of God's necessitation, of God's 
creation, of God's decree, of God's will, of God him- 
self? 

To say that men sin voluntarily as well as neces- 
sarily is only to make a bad matter worse. For if all 
their sins are necessarily brought about by God's de- 
cree, their willing and bad choice are brought about 
by the same means. 

Mr. Toplady attempts to support his scheme of 
absolute necessity by taking a philosophical survey 
U 



242 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



of the soul's dependance on the body, and on the sur- 
rounding circumstances. He remarks that "the soul 
is in a very extensive degree passive, as matter is ; — 
the senses are necessarily impressed by every object 
from without ; and as necessarily commove the fibres 
of the brain ; from which nervous commotion ideas are 
necessarily communicated to, or excited in, the soul; 
and by the judgment which the soul necessaiily frames 
of those ideas, the will is necessarily inclined to approve 
or disapprove, to act or not to act." — " The human body 
is necessarily encompassed by a multitude of other 
bodies ; which other surrounding bodies, animal, ve- 
getable, &c, so far as we come within their perceivable 
sphere, necessarily impress our nerves with sensations 
correspondent to the objects themselves. These sensa- 
tions are necessarily propagated to the soul, which can 
no more help receiving them, and being affected by 
them, than a tree can resist a stroke of lightning." 

To this "philosophical survey" Mr. Fletcher opposes 
the following remarks : — 

I. This scheme is contrary to genuine philosophy, 
which has always represented the soul as able to resist 
the strongest impressions of the objects that surround 
the body. 

II. This doctrine unman's man. For reason, or a 
power morally to regulate the appetite which we gratify- 
by means of our senses, is what chiefly distinguishes 
us from other animals. Now, if outward objects neces- 
sarily bias our senses ; if our senses necessarily bias 
our judgment; and if our judgment necessarily bias 
our will and practice ; what advantage have we over 
beasts ? 

III. It also overthrows conscience, and the "light 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 243 

which enlightens every man." For of what use is 
conscience 1 Or of what use is the internal light of 
grace which enlightens conscience within, if man is 
necessarily determined from without; and if the ob- 
jects which strike his senses irresistibly turn his judg- 
ment and his will, insomuch that he can no more resist 
their impression " than a tree can resist a stroke of 
lightning ?" 

IV. This scheme robs us of the very essence of God's 
natural image, which consists chiefly in self-activity 
and self-motion. For, according to this scheme, we 
cannot take one step, not even in the common affairs 
of life, without an irresistible necessitating impulse. 

V. This scheme of necessity charges all sin upon 
Providence, who, by the surrounding objects which ne- 
cessarily impress our intellect, causes sin as truly and 
as irresistibly as a gunner causes the explosion of a 
loaded cannon by applying a lighted match to the 
powder. And Eve was unwise when she said, " The 
serpent beguiled me and I did eat :" for she might have 
said, " Lord, I have only followed the appointed law of 
my nature : for providentially coming within sight of 
the tree of knowledge, I perceived that the fruit was 
good for food, and pleasant to the eye. It necessarily 
impressed my nerves with correspondent sensations; 
these sensations were necessarily and instantaneously 
propagated to my soul; and my soul could no more 
help receiving these forcible impressions, and eating in 
consequence of them, than a tree can resist a stroke 
of lightning." 

VI. It is contrary to Scripture; for if man be neces- 
sarily affected and irresistibly wrought upon or led by 
the forcible impressions of external objects, Paul spoke 



S44 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



like a heretical free wilier when he said, All things 
[indifferent] are lawful for me ; but I will not be 
brought under the power of any. How foolish was 
the saying, if he could no more help being brought 
under the irresistible power of the objects which sur- 
rounded him than a tree can help being struck by 
lightning ! 

VII. It is contrary to common sense. How can God 
reasonably set life and death before us, and bid us 
choose life and shun death, if surrounding objects work 
upon us as lightning works on a tree? 

VIII. It is contrary to the sentiment of all the 
churches of Christ, for they all reasonably require us 
to renounce the vain pomps of the world, and the al- 
luring, sinful baits of the flesh. But if these pomps 
and baits work upon us by means of our senses as 
necessarily, and determine our wills as irresistibly, as 
lightning shivers a tree, can any thing be more absurd 
than our baptismal engagements? Might we not as 
well seriously vow never to be struck with lightning ? 

IX. It represents the proceedings of the day of judg- 
ment as the most unrighteous, cruel, and hypocritical 
acts that ever disgraced the tribunal of a tyrant. For 
if God, by eternal, absolute, and necessitating decrees, 
places the reprobates in the midst of a current of cir- 
cumstances which carries them along as irresistibly as 
a rapid river wafts a feather ; — if he encompasses them 
with tempting objects, which strike their souls with 
ideas that cause sin in their hearts and lives, as in- 
evitably as a stroke of lightning raises splinters in a 
tree which it shatters ; — and if we can no more help 
being determined by these objects, which God's provi- 
dence has placed around us on purpose to determine 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



245 



us, than a tree can resist a stroke of lightning, it un- 
avoidably follows, that when God will judicially con- 
demn the wicked and send them to hell for their sins, 
he will act with as much justice as the king would do 
if he sent to the gallows all his subjects who have had 
the misfortune of being struck with lightning. Nay, 
to make the case parallel, we must suppose that the 
king has the absolute command of the lightning, and 
had previously struck them with the fiery ball, that he 
might subsequently condemn them to be hanged for 
having been struck according to his absolute decree. 

X. This scheme of necessity places matter and its 
impressions far above spirit and its influence. Every 
material object around us, by making necessary, irre- 
sistible impressions on our minds, necessarily determines 
our will, and irresistibly impels our actions. According 
to this system, we cannot resist the iufluence of matter ; 
but if we believe the Scriptures, we can resist the Holy 
Ghost j and do despite to the Spirit of grace. Now, 
what is this but to represent matter as more active, 
quick, and powerful than spirit 7 yea, than even the 
Holy /Spirit ? 



246 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
ABSURD CONSEQUENCES ATTACHED TO ERROR. 

SECTION I. 

SHOWING THAT, UPON THE CALVINIAN SCHEME, IT IS AN 
INDUBITABLE TRUTH THAT SOME MEN SHALL BE SAVED, 
DO WHAT THEY WILL, TILL THE EFFICACIOUS DECREE OF 
CALVINIAN ELECTION NECESSITATES THEM TO REPENT 
AND BE SAVED ; AND THAT OTHERS SHALL BE DAMNED, 
DO WHAT THEY CAN, TILL THE EFFICACIOUS DECREE OF 
CALVINIAN REPROBATION NECESSITATES THEM TO SIN 
AND BE DAMNED. 

If God from all eternity absolutely predestinated a 
fixed number of men, called the elect, to eternal life, 
and absolutely predestinated a fixed number of men, 
called the reprobate, to eternal death, does it not un- 
avoidably follow that a the elect shall be saved, do 
what they will;" and that "the reprobate shall be 
damned, do what they can ?" Mr. Wesley thinks 
that this consequence is true ; Mr. Toplady says that 
it is absolutely false ; but I side with Mr. Wesley for 
the consequence ; guarding against cavils by a clause 
which his love of brevity made him think needless. 

An illustration will at once show the justness of this 
consequence to an unprejudiced reader. Fifty fishes 
sport in a muddy pond where they have received life. 
The skilful and almighty owner of the pond has ab- 
solutely decreed that ten of these fishes, properly marked 
with a shining mark called election, shall absolutely be 
caught in a certain net, called a gospel net, on a cer- 
tain day, called the day of his power, and that they 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



247 



shall every one be cast into a delightful river, where he 
has engaged himself, by an eternal covenant of parti- 
cular redemption, to bring them without fail. The 
same omnipotent proprietor of the pond has likewise 
absolutely decreed that all the rest of the fishes, namely, 
forty, which are properly distinguished by a black 
mark called reprobation, shall never be caught in the 
gospel net ; or that, if they are entangled in it at any 
time, they shall always be drawn out of it, and so shall 
necessarily continue in the muddy pond till, on a certain 
day, called the day of his wrath, he shall sweep the 
pond with a certain net called a law net, catch them 
all, and cast them into a lake of fire and brimstone, 
where he has -engaged himself, by an everlasting cove- 
nant of non-redemption, to bring them all without fail, 
that they may answer the end of their predestination to 
death, which is to show the goodness of his law net, 
and to destroy them for having been bred in the muddy 
pond, and for not having been caught in the gospel net. 
The owner of the pond is wise as well as powerful. 
He knows, that absolutely to secure the end to which 
his fishes are absolutely predestinated, he must also 
absolutely secure the means which conduce to that 
end : and therefore, that none may escape their happy 
or unfortunate predestination, he keeps night and day 
his hold of them all by a strong hook called necessity, 
and by an invisible line called divine decrees. By 
means of this line and hook it happens, that if the 
fishes that bear the mark of election are ever so loth to 
come into the gospel net, or to stay therein, they are 
always drawn into it in a day of powerful love ; and if 
the fishes which bear the mark of reprobation are for „ 
a time ever so desirous to wrap themselves in the gospel 



248 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



net, they are always drawn out of it in a day of power- 
ful wrath. For though the fishes seem to swim ever 
so freely, yet their motions are all absolutely fixed by 
the owner of the pond, and determined by means of the 
above line and hook. If this is the case, says Mr. Wes- 
ley, ten fishes shall go into the delightful river, let them 
do what they will; let them plunge in the mud of their 
pond ever so briskly, or leap toward the lake of fire ever 
so often, while they have any liberty to plunge or to 
leap. And all the rest of the fishes, forty in number, 
shall go into the lake of fire, let them do what they 
can ; let them involve themselves ever so long in the 
gospel net, and leap ever so often toward the fine river, 
before they are absolutely necessitated to go through the 
mud of their own pond into the sulphureous pool. The 
consequence is undeniable, and I make no doubt that 
all unprejudiced persons see it as well as myself; as 
sure as two and two make four, or, if you please, as 
sure as ten and forty make fifty, so sure ten fishes 
shall be caught in the gospel net, and forty in the 
law net. 

Mr. Toplady denies the consequence, and says — 
" Can Mr. Wesley produce a single instance of any 
one man who did all he could to be saved, and yet was 
lost? If he can, let him tell us who that man was, 
where he lived, when he died, what he did, and how 
it came to pass that he laboured in vain ; if he cannot, 
let him either retract his consequences, or continue to 
be posted as a shameless traducer." 

I answer : 1. To require Mr. Wesley to show a man 
who did all he could, and yet was lost, is requiring him 
to prove that Calvinian reprobation is true ! — a thing 
this which he can no more do than he can prove that 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



249 



God is false. Mr. Wesley never said any man was 
damned after doing his best to be saved ; he only says 
that, if Calvinism is true, the reprobates shall all be 
damned, though they should all do their best to be 
saved, till the efficacious decree of their absolute repro- 
bation necessitates them to draw back and be damned. 

2. As Mr. Toplady's bold request may impose upon 
his inattentive readers, I beg leave to point out its ab- 
surdity by a short illustration. Mr. Wesle)^ says, if 
there is a mountain, it is heavier than a handful of 
feathers ; and his consequence passes for true in Eng- 
land : but a gentleman who teaches logic in mystic 
Geneva thinks that it is absolutely false, and that Mr. 
Wesley's u forehead must be petrified, and quite im- 
pervious to a blush," for advancing it. Can Mr. 
Wesley, says he, show us a mountain of gold which 
is really heavier than a handful of feathers 7 If he can, 
let him tell us what mountain it is, where it lies, in 
what latitude, how high it is, and who did ever ascend 
to the top of it. If he cannot, let him either retract 
his consequences, or continue to be posted as a shame- 
less traducer. 

SECTION II. 

MR. TOPLADY'S INQUIRY ANSWERED. 

Mr. Toplady inquires, " Is salvation due to a man 
that does not perform those conditions T And then he 
remarks, " If you say yes, you jump hand over head 
into what you yourself call Antinomianism. If you 
say that salvation is not due to a man unless he do 
fulfil the condition; it will follow that man's own 
11* 



250 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



performances are meritorious of salvation, and bring 
God himself into debt." 

To this Mr. Fletcher answers— The flaw of Mr. 
Toplady's argument will appear in its proper magni- 
tude, if we look at it through the following illustration : 
A whole regiment is led to the left by the colonel, whom 
the general wanted to turn to the right. The colonel, 
who is personally in the fault, is pardoned ; and five 
hundred of the soldiers, who, by the overbearing influ- 
ence of their colonel's disobedience, were necessitated 
to move to the left, are appointed to be hanged for not 
going to the right. The general sends to Geneva for 
a Tertidlus, who vindicates the justice of the execu- 
tion by the following speech : " Preferment is not due 
to obedient soldiers, much less to soldiers who have 
necessarily disobeyed orders ; and therefore your gra- 
cious general acts consistently with justice in appoint- 
ing these five hundred soldiers to be hanged, for, as 
there is no medium between not promoting soldiers 
and hanging them, he might justly have hanged the 
whole regiment. He is not bound by any law to give 
any soldier a captain's commission ; and therefore he is 
perfectly just when he sends these military reprobates 
to the gallows." Some of the auditors clap Tertullus's 
argument: P. O. cries out that it is "most masterly:" 
but a few of the soldiers are not quite satisfied, and 
begin to question whether the holy service of the mild 
Saviour of the world is not preferable to the Antino- 
mian service of the absolute reprobater of countless 
myriads of unborn infants. 

2. The other flaw of Mr. Toplady's dilemma consists 
in supposing that gospel worthiness is incompatible 
with the gospel : whereas all the doctrines of justice, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



251 



which make one half of the gospel, stand or fall with 
the doctrine of evangelical worthiness. We will shout 
it on the walls of mystic Geneva: they that follow 
Christ shall walk with him in white, rather than they 
that follow antichrist; for they are [more] worthy. 
Watch and fray always, that you may be counted 
worthy to escape, and to stand reward able before the 
Son of man. The doctrine of Pharisaic merit we 
abhor; but the doctrine of rewardable obedience we 
honour, defend, and extol. Believers, let not Mr. Top- 
lady beguile you of your reward through voluntary 
humility ; your persevering obedience shall be graciously 
rewarded by a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give you at that 
day; and then great shall be your reward in heaven. 
For Christ himself hath said, Be faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life. Iam the author 
of eternal salvation to them that obey me. What 
can be plainer than this gospel? Shall the absurd 
cries of " Popery !" " merit !" &c., make us ashamed 
of Christ's disciple; of Christ's words; and of Christ 
himself? God forbid ! Let the Scriptures — let God be 
true, though Mr. Toplady should be mistaken. 

Mr. Toplady says, page 3S : " If he [God] be not 
obliged, in justice, to save mankind, then neither is he 
unjust in passing by some men : nay, he might, had 
he so pleased, have passed by the whole of mankind 
without electing one individual of the fallen race, and 
yet have continued holy, just, and good." 

True ; he might have passed them by, without fix- 
ing any blot upon his justice and goodness, if by passing 
them by Mr. T. means leaving them in the wretched 
state of seminal existence, in which state his vindictive 



252 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

justice found them after Adam's fall. For then, an 
unknown punishment, seminally endured, would 
have borne just proportion to an unknown sin, semi- 
nally committed. But if, by passing- some men by, 
this gentleman means, as Calvinism does, " absolutely 
predestinating men to necessary, remediless sin, and 
to unavoidable, eternal damnation :" we deny that God 
might justly have passed by the whole of mankind : 
we deny that he might justly have passed by one 
single man, woman, or child. Nay, we affirm that, if 
we conceive Satan, or the evil principle of Manes, as- 
exerting creative power, we could not conceive him 
worse employed than in forming an absolute reprobate 
in embryo ; that is, a creature unconditionally and ab- 
solutely doomed to remediless wickedness and everlast- 
ing fire. 

As the simple are frequently imposed upon by an 
artful substituting of the harmless word passing by for 
the terrible word absolutely reprobating to death, I 
beg leave to show, by a simile, the vast difference there 
is between these two phrases. A king may, without 
injustice, pass by all the beggars in the streets, without 
giving them any bounty ; because, if he does them no 
good in thus passing them by, he does them no harm. 
But suppose he called two captains of his guards, and 
said to the first, If you see me pass by little dirty beg- 
gars without giving them an alms, throw them into the 
mire, or, if their parents, keep them there : then let the 
second captain follow with his men, and take all the 
dirty beggars who have been thus passed by, and 
throw them, for being dirty, into a furnace hotter than 
that of Nebuchadnezzar: — suppose, I say, the king 
passed his little indigent subjects by in this manner, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



253 



would not his decree of pretention be a more than 
diabolical piece of cruelty ? I need not inform my judi- 
cious readers, that the passing by of the king repre- 
sents Calvinian passing by, that is, absolute reproba- 
tion to death : that the first captain, who throws little 
beggars into the dirt, or keeps them there, represents 
the decree of the means, which necessitates the repro- 
bate to sin, or to continue in sin ; and that the second 
captain represents the decree of the end, which neces- 
sitates them to go to everlasting burnings. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
A RATIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 

When it pleased God to create a world, his wisdom 
obliged him to create upon the plan that was most wor- 
thy of him. Such a plan was undoubtedly that which 
agreed best with all the divine perfections taken to- 
gether. Wisdom and power absolutely required that 
it should be a world of rational, as well as irrational 
creatures; of free, as well as of necessary agents; 
such a world displayed far better what St. Paul calls 
■no7.vKOLKLkos coQta, the multifarious, variegated wis- 
dom of God, as well as his infinite power in making, 
ruling, and overruling various orders of beings. 

It could not be expected that myriads of free agents, 
who necessarily fell short of absolute perfection, would 
all behave alike. Here God's goodness demanded 
that those who behaved well should be rewarded ; his 
sovereignty insisted, that those who behaved ill 
should be punished ; and his distributive justice 



254 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



and equity required, that those who made the best 
use of their talents should be entitled to the highest 
rewards ; while those who abused divine favours most, 
should have the severest punishments ; mercy reserv- 
ing to itself the right of raising rewards, and of allevi- 
ating punishments, in a way suited to all the other 
divine attributes. 

This being granted, (and I do not see how any man 
of reason and piety can deny it,) it evidently follows : 
1. That a world in which various orders of free, as 
well as necessary agents, are admitted, is most per- 
fect. 2. That this world, having been formed upon such 
a wise plan, was the most perfect that could possibly be 
created. 3. That, in the very nature of things, evil 
may, although there is no necessity it should, enter 
into such a world ; else it could not be a world of 
free agents who are candidates for distributive jus- 
tice. 4. That the blemishes and disorders of the na- 
tural world are only penal consequences of disobedience 
of free agents. 5. That from such penal disorders we 
may indeed conclude that man has abused free will, 
but not that God deals in free wrath. Only admit, 
therefore, the free will of rationals, and you cannot but 
fall in love with our Creator's plan, dark and horrid as 
it appears when it is viewed through the smoked glass 
of the fatalist, the Manichee, or the rigid predestina- 
rian. 

But Mr. Toplady inquires, " How came moral evil to 
be permitted, when it might have been hindered, by 
a Being of infinite goodness, power, and wisdom ?" 

Answer 1. When God placed man in paradise, far 
from permitting him to sin, he strictly forbade him to 
do it. Is it right then in Mr. Toplady to call God the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



255 



permitter of sin, when the Scriptures represent him as 
the forbidder of it? Nay, is it not very wrong to 
pour shame upon the holiness of God, and absurdity 
upon the reason of man, by making a Calvinistic world 
believe that forbidding and threatening is one and 
the same thing with 'permitting and giving leave; 
or, at least, that the difference is so trifling, that all the 
sagacity of man idM find it difficult, not to say im- 
possible, clearly to point it out ? 

2. I pretend to a very little share of all the sagacity 
of man ; and yet, without being nonplused at all, I 
hope to show, by the following illustration, that there is 
a prodigious difference between not hindering, and 
design, in the case of the entering in of sin. 

A general wants to try the faithfulness of his soldiers, 
that he may reward those who will fight, and punish 
those who will go over to the enemy ; in order to dis- 
play, before all the army, his love of bravery, his hatred 
of cowardice, his remunerative goodness, and his im- 
partial justice. To this end he issues out a proclama- 
tion, importing that all the volunteers who shall gallantly 
keep the field in such an important engagement shall 
be made captains ; and all those who shall go over to 
the enemy shall be shot. I suppose him endued with 
infinite wisdom, knowledge, and power. By his om- 
niscience he sees that some will desert ; by his omni- 
potence he could, indeed, hinder them from doing it ; 
for he could chain them all to so many posts stuck in 
the ground around their colours: but hisinfinite wisdom 
does not permit him to do it ; as it would be a piece of 
madness in him to defeat, by forcible means, his design 
of trying the courage of his soldiers, in order to reward 
and punish them according to their gallant or cow- 



256 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ardly behaviour in the field. And therefore, though he 
is persuaded that many will be shot, he puts his procla- 
mation in force, because, upon the whole, it will best an- 
swer his wise designs. However, as he does not desire, 
much less design, that any of his soldiers should be 
shot for desertion, he does what his wisdom permits him 
to do to prevent their going over to the enemy ; and yet, 
for the above-mentioned reason, he does not absolutely 
hinder them from doing it. Now in such a case, who 
does not see that the difference in not absolutely hin- 
dering and designing is as discernible as the differ- 
ence between reason and folly — or between wisdoin 
and ivickedness ? By such dangerous insinuations as 
that w 7 hich this illustration exposes, the simple are 
imperceptibly led to confound Christ w 7 ith Belial, and 
to think there is little difference between the celestial 
Parent of good, and the Manichean parent of good and 
evil i — the Janus of the fatalists, w^ho wears two faces, 
an angel's face and a devil's face: a mongrel, imaginary 
god this, whose fancied ways are, like his fancied na- 
ture, full of duplicity. 

3. To the preceding illustration I beg leave to add 
the following argument. No unprejudiced person will, 
I hope, refuse his assent to the truth of this proposi- 
tion. A world wherein there are rational free agents, 
like angels and men; — irrational free age?its, like 
dogs and horses ; — necessary agents, like plants and 
trees ; — and dead matter, like stones and clods of earth : 
— such a world, I say, is as much superior in perfection 
to a world where there are only necessary agents and 
dead matter, as a place inhabited by learned men and 
curious beasts contains more wonders than one which 
is only stocked with fine flowers and curious stones. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 257 

If this be granted, it necessarily follows that this world 
was perfect, calculated to display His infinite power and 
manifold wisdom. Now, in the very nature of things, 
rational free agents, being capable of knowing their 
Creator, owe to him gratitude and obedience ; and to 
one another, assistance and love ; and therefore they 
are under a law, which [as free agents] they may 
keep or break, as they please. 

" But could not God necessitate free agents to keep 
the law they are under ?" 

Yes. says Calvinism, for he is endued with infinite 
power : but Scripture, good sense, and matter of fact 
say no : because, although God is endued with infinite 
power, he is also endued with infinite wisdom. And it 
would be as absurd to create free agents in order to 
necessitate them, as to do a thing in order to undo it. 
Besides, [I repeat it,] God's distributive justice could 
never be displayed, nor could free obedience be paid 
by rationals, and crowned by the Rewarder and Judge 
of all the earth, unless rationals were free- willing crea- 
tures; and therefore, the moment you absolutely neces- 
sitate them, you destroy them as free agents, and rob 
God of two of his most glorious titles — that of Re- 
warder and that of Judge. Thus we account for the 
origin of evil in a Scriptural and rational manner, with- 
out the help of fatalism, Manicheeism, or Calvinism. 



258 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
DIFFICULTIES REMOVED. 

SECTION I. 

REMARKS ON 1 SAMUEL II, 25. THEY [THE SONS OF ELl] 
HEARKENED NOT TO THE VOICE OF THEIR FATHER, BE- 
CAUSE THE LORD WOULD SLAY THEM. 

This passage is introduced by Mr. Toplady to show- 
that "the Lord secures the end by securing the means. 
By the decree of the means the Lord secured the disobe- 
dience of these wicked men, in order to accomplish the 
decree of the end, that is, their absolute destruction. 

To this Calvinian insinuation Mr. Fletcher answers : 
1. That the sons of Eli, who had turned the taberna- 
cle into a house of ill fame, and a den of thieves, had 
personally deserved a judicial reprobation; God, there- 
fore, could justly give them up to a reprobate mind, in 
consequence of their personal, avoidable, repeated, and 
aggravated crimes. 

2. The word killing does not here necessarily imply 
eternal damnation. The Lord killed, by a lion, the 
man of God from Judah, for having stopped in Bethel : 
he killed Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire: 
he killed the child of David and Bathsheba : he killed 
many of the Corinthians for their irreverent partaking 
of the Lord's supper : but the sin unto [bodily] death is 
not the sin unto eternal death ; for St. Paul informs, 
that the body is sometimes given up to Satan for the 
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved 
in the day of the Lord, 1 Cor. v, 5. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



259 



3. The Hebrew particle, "O, which is rendered in our 
translation because, means also therefore : and so our 
translators themselves have rendered it after St. Paul 
and the Septuagmt, Psa. cxvi, 10. I believed, % and 
therefore will I speak : see 2 Cor. iv, 13. If they had 
done their part as well in translating the verse quoted 
by Mr. Toplady, the doctrine of free wrath would have 
gone propless, and we should have had these edifying 
words : They [the sons of Eli] hearkened not to the 
voice of their father, and therefore the Lord would 
slay them. Thus the voluntary sin of free agents 
would be represented as the cause of their deserved 
reprobation ; and not their undeserved reprobation as 
the cause of their necessary sin. 



SECTION II. 

EXPLANATION OF ACTS IV, 27, 28. 

For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom 
thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were ga- 
thered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and 
thy counsel determined before to be done. 

With respect to this text, if it be rightly translated, 
it is explained by these words of St. Peter, Acts ii, 23, 
which declare that Christ was delivered by the deter- 
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God: — " de- 
livered" as a ransom for all. If rightly translated — 
with Episcopius, and some other learned critics, I doubt 
it is not — why should it not be read thus ? For of a 
truth against thy holy child Jesus, (both Herod and 
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of 



260 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



Israel, were gathered together,) for to do whatsoever 
thy hand and thy counsel determined to be done. By 
putting the clause both Herod, &c, in a parenthesis, you 
have this evangelical sense, which gives no handle for 
the pleaders for sin : Both Herod and Pilate, <$-c, were 
gathered together against thy holy child Jesus, whom 
thou hast anointed for to do whatsoever thy hand and 
counsel determined to be done. I prefer this reading 
to the common for the following reasons : 1. It is per- 
fectly agreeable to the Greek ; and the peculiar con- 
struction of the sentence is expressive of the peculiar 
earnestness with which the apostle prayed. 2. It is 
attended with no Manichean inconveniency. 3. It is 
more agreeable to the context. For if the Sanhedrim 
was gathered by God's direction and decree, in order 
to threaten the apostles, with what propiiety could they 
say, [verse 29,] Now, Lord, behold their threatening ? 
And, 4. It is strongly supported by verse 30, where Pe- 
ter [after having observed, verses 27, 28, according to 
our reading, that God had anointed his holy child Jesus 
to do all the miracles which he did on earth] prays, that 
now Christ is gone to heaven, the effects of this power- 
ful anointing may continue, and signs and wonders 
may be done by the name of his holy child Jesus. 

This passage then, and all those which Mr. Toplady 
has produced, or may yet produce, only prove, 1. That 
God foresees the evil which is in the heart of the 
wicked, and their future steps in peculiar circumstances, 
with ten thousand times more clearness and cer- 
tainty than a good huntsman foresees all the windings, 
doublings, and shifts of a hunted fox : and that he over- 
rules their wicked counsels to the execution of his own 
wise and holy designs, as a good rider overrules the 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



261 



mad prancings of a vicious horse, to the display of his 
perfect skill in horsemanship, and to the treading down 
of the enemy in a day of battle. 2. That God catches 
the wise in their own craftiness; and to punish the 
wicked, he permits their wicked counsels to be defeated, 
and their best concerted schemes to prove abortive. 
3. That he frequently tries the faith and exercises the 
patience of good men, by letting loose the wicked upon 
them, as in the case of Job and Christ. 4. That he 
often punishes the wickedness of one man by letting 
loose upon him the wickedness of another man ; and 
that he frequently avenges himself of one wicked na- 
tion by letting loose upon it the wickedness of another 
nation. Thus he let Absalom and Shimei loose 
upon David. Thus the Lord let loose the Philistines 
upon disobedient Israel, and the Romans upon the ob- 
durate Jews. 5. That he sometimes lets a wicked man 
loose upon himself, as in the case of Ahithophel, Na- 
bal, and Judas, who became their own executioners. 
6. That when wicked men are going to commit some 
atrocious wickedness, he sometimes inclines their hearts 
so to relent that they commit a less crime than they 
intended. For instance : when Joseph's brethren were 
going to starve him to death, by providential circum- 
stances God inclined their hearts to spare his life : 
thus, instead of starving him, they only sold him into 
Egypt. 



262 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A CAUTION AGAINST THE TENET THAT " WHATEVER 
IS, IS RIGHT." 

That " whatever is, is right, or will answer some 
great end in relation to the whole." says Mr. Toplady, 
"is a first principle of the Bible wad. of sound reason." 

Whatever the true God works is undoubtedly right. 
But if the Deity absolutely works all things in all men, 
good and bad, it evidently follows, 1. That the two-prin- 
cipled Deity preached by Manes is the true God. 

2. That the bad principle of this double deity works 
wickedness in the wicked, as necessarily as the good 
principle works righteousness in the righteous. And, 

3. That the original of wickedness being divine, wick- 
edness is as right as the Deity from whom it flows. 

Error is never more dangerous than when it looks a 
little like truth. But when it is imposed upon the sim- 
ple as a first principle of the Bible and sound reason, 
it makes dreadful work. How conclusively will a rigid 
predestinarian reason if he says, "Whatever is, is 
right ; and therefore sin is right. Again : it is wrong 
to hinder what is right : sin is right ; and therefore 
it is wrong to hinder sin. Once more : we ought to 
do what is right : sin is right ; and therefore we ought 
to commit sin." 

Now, in opposition to Mr. Toplady's first principle, 
I assert as a first principle of reason, that, though it 
was right in God not absolutely to hinder sin, yet sin is 
always wrong. "O, but God permitted it, and will 
get himself glory by displaying his vindictive justice in 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. . 263 

punishing it : for ' the ministration of condemnation is 
glorious.' " This argument has deluded many a pious 
Calvinist. To overthrow it, however, I need only ob- 
serve, that the ministration of righteousness exceeds 
in glory the ministration of condemnation. 

In what respect is sin right? Can it be right in 
respect of God, if it brings him less glory than right- 
eousness? Can it be right in respect of man, if it 
bring temporal misery upon all, and eternal misery upon 
some? Can it be right in respect of the Adamic law, 
the law of Moses, or the law of Christ? Certainly 
no : for sin is equally the transgression of all these laws. 
" O, but it is right with respect to the evangelical pro- 
mise." By no means : for the evangelical promise, vul- 
garly called the gospel, testifies of Christ, the destroyer 
of sin, and offers us a remedy against sin. Now if sin 
were right, the gospel which remedies it, and Christ 
who destroys it, would be wrong. I conclude then, 
that if sin be right, neither with respect of God, nor 
with respect of man ; neither with regard to the law, 
nor with regard to the gospel ; it is right in no shape, 
it is wrong in every point of view. 

" But why did God permit it ?" Indeed, he never 
did properly permit it, unless to forbid in the most sol- 
emn manner, and under the severest penalty, is the 
same thing as to permit. But, " Why did not God ab- 
solutely hinder sin ?" I answer, 1. Because his wisdom 
saw that a world where free agents and necessary 
agents are mixed, is better [all things considered] than 
a world stocked with nothing but necessary agents, i. e., 
creatures absolutely hindered from sinning. 2. Be- 
cause his distributive justice could be displayed no 
other way than by the creation of accountable free 



264 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



agents, made with an eye to a day of judgment. 
3. Because it would be as absurd to necessitate free 
agents, as to bid free agents be, that they might not be 
free agents ; — as foolish as to form accountable crea- 
tures, that they might not be accountable. * And, 4. Be- 
cause when God saw that the free agency of his 
creatures would introduce sin, he determined to over- 
rule it, or remedy it in such a manner as would, upon 
the whole, render this world, with all the voluntary 
evil and voluntary good in it, better than a world of 
necessary agents, where nothing but necessary good 
would have been displayed: an inferior sort of good 
this, which would no more have admitted of the exer- 
cise of God's political wisdom and distributive justice, 
than the excellence of precious stones and fine flowers 
admits of laws, rewards, and punishments. 

Should the reader ask how far we may safely go to 
meet the truth which borders most on Mr. Toplady's 
false principle, that "whatever is, is right?" I answer, 
1. We may grant, nay, we ought to assert, that God 
will get himself glory every wa)^. Evangelical grace 
and just wrath minister to his praise, though not 
equally : and therefore God willeth not primarily the 
death of his creatures. Punishment is his strange 
work; and he delighteth more in the exercise of his 
remunerative goodness than in the exercise of his vin- 
dictive justice. 2. Hence it appears, that the wrath of 
man and the rage of the devil will turn to God's praise: 
but it is only to his inferior praise. For though the 
blessed will sing loud hallelujahs to divine justice when 
vengeance shall overtake the ungodly ; and though the 
consciences of the ungodly will give God glory, and 
testify that he is holy in all his works, and righteous in 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



265 



all his vindictive ways ; yet, this glory will be only the 
glory of the ministration of condemnation : — a dispen- 
sation this which is inferior to the dispensation of right- 
eous mercy. Hence it appears, that those who die in 
their sins would have brought more glory to God by 
choosing righteousness and life, than they do by choos- 
ing death in the error of their ways. But still, this 
inferior praise, arising from the condemnation and 
punishment of ungodly free agents — this inferior 
praise, I say, mixed with the superior praise arising 
from the justification and rewards of godly free agents, 
will far exceed the praise which might have accrued to 
God from the unavoidable obedience and absurd re- 
wards of necessitated agents — of angels and men abso- 
lutely bound to obey by a necessitating grace, like that 
which rigid bound-willers preach ; were we even to sup- 
pose that this forcible grace had Calvinistically caught all 
rational creatures in a net of finished salvation, and had 
drawn them all to heaven as irresistibly as Simon Pe- 
ter drew the net to land full of great fishes, a hun- 
dred and fifty and three. For, before the Lawgiver 
and Judge of all the earth, the unnecessitated, volun- 
tary goodness of one angel, or one man, is more excel- 
lent than the necessary goodness of a world of creatures 
as unavoidably and passively virtuous as a diamond is 
unavoidably and passively bright.,. 

With respect to the second part of Mr. Toplady's 
doctrine, that whatever is, is right, because " it will 
answer some great end, fyc, in relation to the whole;" 
it is nothing but logical paint put on a false principle 
to cover its deformity ; for error can imitate Jezebel, 
who laid natural paint on her withered face to fill up 
her hideous wrinkles, and impose on the spectators. I 
12 



266 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



may perhaps prove it by an illustration. I want to de- 
monstrate that cheating, extortion, litigiousness, break- 
ing the peace, robberies, and murders are all right ; 
and I do it by asserting " that they answer some great 
ends in relation to the whole; for they employ the 
parliament in making laws to prevent, end, or punish 
them; they afford business to all the judges, magis- 
trates, lawyers, sheriffs, constables, jailers, turnkeys, 
thief-catchers, and executioners in the kingdom: and 
when robbers and murderers are hanged, they reflect 
praise upon the government which extirpates them : 
they strike terror into the wicked ; and their untimely, 
dreadful end, sets off the happiness of a virtuous course 
of life, and the bliss which crowns the death of the 
righteous. Besides, many murderers and robbers have 
been brought to Christ for pardon and salvation, like 
the dying thief, who by his robbery had the good luck 
to meet Christ on the cross: so that his own gallows, as 
well as our Lord's cross, proved the tree of life to that 
happy felon." The mischievous absurdity of these 
pleas for the excellence of wickedness puts me in mind 
of the arguments by which a greedy publican in my 
parish once exculpated himself, when I reproved him 
for encouraging tippling and drunkenness. "The 
more ale we sell," said he, " the greater is the king's 
revenue. If it were not for us the king could not live ; 
nor could he pay the fleet and army : and if we had 
neither fleet nor army, we should soon fall into the 
hands of the French." So great are the ends which 
tippling answers in its relation to the whole British 
empire, if we may believe a tapster, who pleads for 
drunkenness as plausibly as some good mistaken men 
do for all manner of wickedness. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



267 



From the whole, if I am not mistaken, we may safely 
conclude that, though all God's works are right, yet 
sin, the work of fallen angels and fallen men, is never 
right ; and that, though the universe, with all its sin- 
fulness, is better than a sinless world necessitated to 
be sinless by the destruction of free agents, yet, as 
there is so much sin in the world, through the wrong 
use which free agents make of their powers, Mr. T. 
advances an unscriptural and irrational maxim when 
he says, that whatever is, is right. And he imposes 
upon us an Antinomian paradox when he asserts that 
this dangerous maxim 11 is a first principle of the Bible 
and of sound reason." I repeat it : it was right in God 
to create free agents, to put them under a practicable 
law, and to determine to punish them according to 
their works, if they wantonly broke that law ; but it 
could never be right in free agents to break it, unless 
God had bound them to do it by making Calvinian 
decrees necessarily productive of sin and wickedness. 
And supposing God had forbid free agents to sin by his 
law, and had necessitated [which is more than to 
enjoin] them to sin by Calvinian decrees ; we desire 
Mr. T. to show how it could have been right in God 
to forbid sin by law, to necessitate men to sin by a 
decree, and to send them to eternal fire for not keeping 
a law which he had necessitated them to break. 



268 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



CHAPTER XX. 

A MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN CALVINIAN PROVIDENCE 
AND CHANCE. 

Mr. Toplady, after charging Pelagianism on Mr. 
Wesley, says, " I defy the Pelagian to strike out a 
middle way between providence and chance." 

This challenge is too important to be disregarded. 
There are two opposite errors with respect to provi- 
dence. The first is that of the Epicurean philosophers, 
who thought that God does not concern himself about 
our sins, but leaves us to go on as we please, and as 
chance directs. The second is that of the rigid pre- 
destinarians, who imagine that God absolutely predes- 
tinates sin, and necessarily brings it about to accom- 
plish his absolute decrees of eternally saving some men 
through Christ, and eternally damning all the rest of 
mankind through Adam. Of these two erroneous sen- 
timents the latter appears to us the worse, seeing it is 
better to represent God as doing nothing than to repre- 
sent him as doing wickedness. The truth lies between 
these two opinions; God's providence is peculiarly 
concerned about sin, but it does by no means necessa- 
rily bring it about. By this reasonable doctrine we 
answer Mr. T.'s challenge, and strike out the middle 
way between his error and that of Epicurus. 

If you ask how far God's providence is concerned 
about sin ? we reply, that it is concerned about it four 
ways : First, in morally hindering the internal com- 
mission of it before it is committed ; secondly, in pro- 
videntially hindering [at times] the external commis- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



269 



sion of it, when it has been intentionally committed ; 
thirdly y in marking, bounding, and overruling it while 
it is committed ; and fourthly, in bringing about means 
of properly pardoning or exemplarily punishing it after 
it has been committed. Dwell we a moment on each 
of these particulars. 

1. Before sin is committed, divine providence is 
engaged in mora lly hindering the internal commission, 
of it. In order to this, God does two things : First, he 
forbids sin by natural, verbal, or written laws ; and 
secondly, he keeps up our powers of body and soul ; 
enduing us with liberty, whereby we may abstain, like 
moral agents, from the commission of sin ; furnishing 
us besides with a variety of motives and helps to resist 
every temptation to sin. A great variety this, which 
includes God's threatenings and promises ; all his ex- 
hortations and warnings; all the checks of our con- 
sciences and the strivings of the Holy Spirit ; all the 
counsels of good men, and the exemplary punishments 
of the wicked; together with the tears and blood of 
Christ, and other peculiar means of grace, which God 
has appointed to keep Christians from sin, and to 
strengthen them in the performance of their duty. 

2. When sin is committed in the intention, God 
frequently prevents the outward commission, or the full 
completion of it, by peculiar interpositions of his provi- 
dence. Thus he hindered the men of Sodom from 
injuring Lot, by striking them with blindness ; he hin- 
dered Pharaoh from enslaving the Israelites, by drown- 
ing him in the Red Sea; he hindered Balaam from 
cursing Israel, by putting a bridle in his mouth ; he 
hindered Jeroboam from hurting the prophet who came 
out of Judah, by drying up his royal hand when he 



270 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



stretched it forth, saying, "Lay hold on him? he 
hindered Herod from destroying the holy child Jesus, 
by warning Joseph to flee into Egypt, &c., &c. The 
Scriptures and the history of the world are full of ac- 
counts of the ordinary and extraordinary interpositions 
of divine providence, respecting the detection of intended 
mischief, and the preservation of persons and states, 
whom the wicked intended to destroy. And to go no 
farther than England, the providential discovery of the 
gunpowder plot is as remarkable an instance as any 
that God keeps a watchful eye upon the counsels of 
men, and confounds their devices whenever he pleases. 

3. During the commission of sin, God's providence is 
engaged in marking it, in setting bounds to it, or over- 
ruling it, in a manner quite contrary to the expectation 
of sinners. When Joseph's brethren contrived the get- 
ting money by selling him into Egypt, God contrived 
the preservation of Jacob's household. Thus, when 
Haman contrived a gallows to hang Mordecai, the Lord 
so overruled this cruel design that Haman was hung on 
that very gallows. Thus, when Satan wanted to de- 
stroy Job, God set bounds to his rage, and bid the fierce 
accuser spare the good man's life. That envious fiend 
did his worst to make the patient saint curse God to 
his face ; but the Lord so overruled his malice that it 
worked for good to Job : for when Job's patience had 
had its perfect work, all his misfortunes ended in double 
prosperity, and all his tempestuous tossings raised him 
to a higher degree of perfection. Thus, again, to pre- 
serve the seed of the righteous, God formerly kept a 
hundred prophets, and seven hundred true Israelites, 
from the cruelty of Jezebel ; and for the sake of the 
sincere Christians in Judea, he shortened the great 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



271 



tribulation spoken of Matt, xxiv, 22. When the un- 
godly are most busy in sinning, the providence of God 
is most employed in counterworking their sin, in put- 
ting bounds to their desperate designs, and in making 
a way for the godly to escape out of temptation, that 
they may be able to bear it : for the rod of the un- 
godly cometh not [with its full force] into the lot of 
the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their 
hand into iniquity, through such powerful and lasting 
temptations as would make it impossible for them to 
stand firm in the way of duty, Psa. cxxv, 3. 

4. When sin is actually committed, the providence 
of God, in conjunction with his mercy and justice, is 
employed either in using means to bring sinners to 
repentance, confession, and pardon, or in inflicting upon 
them such punishments as seem most proper to divine 
wisdom. To be convinced of it, read the history of 
man's redemption by Jesus Christ ; mark the various 
steps by which providence brings the guilty to convic- 
tion, the penitent to pardon, the finally impenitent to 
destruction, and all to some degree of punishment. By 
what an amazing train of providential dispensations 
were Joseph's brethren, for instance, brought to remem- 
ber, lament, and smart for their cruel behaviour to him ! 
And how did God, by various afflictions, bring his re- 
bellious people to consider their ways, and to humble 
themselves before him in the land of their captivity ! 
What an amazing work had divine providence in 
checking and punishing the sin of Pharaoh in Egypt, 
that of the Israelites in the wilderness, that of David 
and his house in Jerusalem, and that of Nebuchad- 
nezzar and Belshazzar in Babylon ! 

Evangelically and providentially opening the way for 



272 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



the return of sinners, and repaying obdurate offenders 
to their faces, make one half of God's work, as he is 
the gracious and righteous Governor of men. We can- 
not doubt it, if we take notice of the innumerable means 
by which conversions and punishments are brought 
about. To touch only upon punishments : some, ex- 
tend to the sea, others to the land ; some spread over 
particular districts, others over whole kingdoms ; some 
affect a whole family, and others a whole community; 
some affect the soul, and others the body ; some fall 
only upon one limb, or one of the senses, others upon 
the whole animal frame and all the senses ; some affect 
our well-being, others our being itself ; some are con- 
fined to this world, and others extend to a future state ; 
some are of a temporal and others of an eternal nature. 
Now, since providence, in subservience to divine justice, 
manages all these punishments and innumerable con- 
sequences, how mistaken is Mr. T. when he insinuates 
that our doctrine supposes God to be an idle spectator 
while sin is committed. 

5. With respect to the gracious tempers of the right- 
eous, we believe that they all flow [though without 
Calvinian necessity] from the free gift which is come 
upon all men, and from the light which enlighteneth 
every man that cometh into the world. And as to 
their good works, we are so far from excluding divine 
grace and providence, in order to exalt absolute free 
will, that we assert, Not one good work would ever be 
begun, continued, or ended, if divine grace within us, 
and divine providence without us, did not animate our 
souls, support our bodies, help our infirmities, and [to 
use the language of our church] " prevent, accompany, 
and follow us" through the whole. And yet in all 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



273 



moral, and in many natural actions, we are as free 
from the laws of Calvinian necessity as from those of 
the great mogul. 

6. With regard to the families and kingdoms of this 
world, we assert that God's providence either baffles, 
controls, or sets bounds to the bad designs of the 
wicked ; while it has the principal hand in succeeding 
the good designs of the righteous, as often as they have 
any success : for, except the Lord keep the city, as 
well as the watchman, the watchman xoaketh but in 
•vain. And with respect to the course of nature, we 
believe that it is ordered by his unerring counsel. With 
a view to maintain order in the universe, his providen- 
tial wisdom made admirable laws of attraction, repul- 
sion, generation, fermentation, vegetation, and dissolu- 
tion. And his providential power and watchfulness 
are, though without either labour or anxiety, continually 
engaged in conducting all things according to those 
laws; except when, on proper occasions, he suspends 
the influence of his own natural decrees ; and then fire 
may cease to burn, iron to sink in water, and hungry 
lions to devour their helpless prey. Nay, at the beck 
of Omnipotence, a widow's cruise of oil and barrel of 
meal shall be filled without the help of the olive-tree, 
and the formality of a growing harvest ; a dry rod shall 
suddenly blossom, and a green fig-tree shall instantly 
be dried up ; garments in daily use shall not wear out 
in forty years ; a prophet shall live forty days without 
food ; the liquid waves shall afford a solid walk to a 
believing apostle ; a fish shall bring back the piece of 
money which it had swallowed ; and water shall be 
turned into wine without the gradual process of vege- 
tation. 

12* 



274 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



If Mr. T. do us the justice to weigh these six obser- 
vations upon the prodigious work which God's provi- 
dence carries on in the moral, spiritual, and natural 
world, according to our doctrine, we hope he will no 
more intimate that we atheistically deny, or heretically 
defame, that divine attribute. 

To conclude : we exactly steer our course between 
rigid free-willers, who suppose they are independent 
on God's providence, and rigid bound-willers, who 
fancy they do nothing but what fate or God's provi- 
dence absolutely binds them to do. We equally detest 
the error of Epicurus and that of Mr. Toplady. The 
former taught that God took no notice of sin ; the latter 
says that God, by efficacious permissions and irre- 
sistible decrees, absolutely necessitates men to commit 
it. But we maintain, that although God never abso- 
lutely necessitated his creatures to sin, yet his provi- 
dence is remarkably employed about sin in all the 
above described ways. And if Mr. Toplady will call 
us defamers of divine providence and Atheists, be- 
cause we dare not represent God, directly or indirectly, 
as the author of sin, we rejoice in so honourable a 
reproach; and humbly trust that this, as well as all 
manner of similar evil, is rashly said of us for right- 
eousness 1 sake. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



275 



CHAPTER XXI. 
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

The following extracts are taken from Mr. Fletcher's 
" Last Check to Antinomianism ; a polemical essay on 
the twin doctrines of Christian imperfection and death 
purgatory." The compiler finds it exceedingly difficult 
to make extracts from this volume agreeably to the plan 
he has proposed, without doing an injury to the writer ; 
on account that the whole essay is so excellent, and 
each part so connected, the whole must be read in order 
to understand the subject, or duly appreciate the talents 
of the author. In this selection he has done the best 
he could, and can only hope that what he has here 
presented will serve to show the reader that Mr. Fletcher 
is an admirable writer on this as well as on the fore- 
going subjects, and induce him to procure and read the 
essay in its original form. But especially he hopes to 
furnish the reader with a condensed view of the argu- 
ments by which the doctrine of holiness is supported, 
and the practicability of answering the objections which 
are usually urged against it. He hopes, also, that such 
will be the force with which the arguments will strike 
the reader, that he will be induced to see what is his 
duty and privilege as a Christian, and be excited 
earnestly to seek for the attainment, in his own per- 
sonal experience, of all the heights and depths of 

PERFECT LOVE. 

T. S. 



276 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



SECTION I. 

THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION STATED. 

When a late fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, at- 
tacked the doctrine of sincere obedience which I defend 
in the Checks, he said with great truth, " Sincere obe- 
dience^ as a condition, will lead yon unavoidably up 
to perfect obedience" What he urged as an argu- 
ment against our views of the gospel is one of the 
reasons by which we defend them, and perhaps the 
strongest of all : for our doctrine leads as naturally to 
holiness and perfect obedience, as that of our opponents 
does to sin and imperfection. If the streams of Mr. 
HilVs doctrine never stop till they have carried men 
into a sea of indwelling sin, where he leaves them to 
struggle with waves of immorality, or with billows of 
corruption, all the days of their life ; it is evident that 
our doctrine, which is the very reverse of his, must take 
us to a sea of indwelling holiness, where we calmly 
outride all the storms which Satan raised to destroy 
Job's perfection, and where all our pursuing corrup- 
tions are as much destroyed as the Egyptians were in 
the Red Sea. 

Reader, I plead for the most precious liberty in the 
world — heart liberty ; for liberty from the most galling 
of all yokes, the yoke of heart corruption. Let not 
thy prejudice turn a deaf ear to the important plea. If 
thou candidly, believingly, and practically receive the 
truth as it is in Jesus, it shall make thee free, and 
thou shalt be free indeed. 

Most of the controversies which arise between men 
who fear God spring from the hurry with which some 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 



277 



men find fault with what they have not yet examined. 
Why does Mr. Hill, at the head of the Calvinists, 
attack the doctrine of Christian perfection which we 
contend for? Is it because he and they are sworn 
enemies to righteousness, and zealous protectors of 
iniquity ? Not at all. The grand reason, next to their 
Calvinian prejudices, is their inattention to the question, 
and to the arguments by which our sentiments are 
supported. If producing light is the best method of 
opposing darkness, setting the doctrine of Christian 
perfection in a proper point of view will be the best 
means of opposing the doctrines of Christian imper- 
fection and of a death purgatory. 

Christian perfection! Why should the harmless 
phrase offend us? The word perfection comes from 
the Latin perficio, to perfect, to finish, to accomplish. 
We give the name Christian perfection to that ma- 
turity of grace and holiness which established adult 
believers attain to under the Christian dispensation ; 
and thus we distinguish that maturity of grace both 
from the ripeness of grace which belongs to the Jews 
below us, and from the ripeness of glory which belongs 
to departed saints above us. Hence it appears, that 
by Christian perfection we mean nothing but the 
cluster and maturity of the graces which compose the 
Christian church militant. 

In other words, Christian perfection is a spiritual 
constellation made up of these gracious stars, perfect 
repentance, perfect faith, perfect humility, perfect 
meekness, perfect self-denial, perfect resignation, 
perfect hope, perfect charity for our visible enemies 
as well as for our earthly relations ; and, above all, 
perfect love for our invisible God, through the explicit 



278 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



knowledge of our Mediator, Jesus Christ. And as the 
last star is always accompanied by all the others, as 
Jupiter is by his satellites, we frequently use, as St. 
John, the phrase perfect love instead of the word per- 
fection, understanding by it the pure love of God shed 
abroad in the hearts of established believers. 



SECTION II. 

IS CHRISTIAN PERFECTION A SINLESS PERFECTION 1 

Should Mr/ Hill ask if the Christian perfection 
which we contend for is a si?iless perfection, we reply, 
Sin is the transgression of a divine law, and man 
may be considered either as being under the anti- 
evangelical, Christless, remediless law of our Crea- 
tor, or as being under the evangelical, mediatorial, 
remedying law of our Redeemer ; and the question 
must be answered according to the nature of these two 
laws. 

With respect to the first, that is, the Adamic, Christ- 
less law of innocence and paradisiacal perfection, we 
utterly renounce the doctrine of sinless perfection, for 
three reasons : 1. We are conceived and born in a 
state of sinful degeneracy, whereby that law is already 
virtually broken ; 2. Our mental and bodily powers are 
so enfeebled that we cannot help actually breaking that 
law in numberless instances, even after our full con- 
version ; and, 3. When once we have broken that law, 
it considers us as transgressors for ever : nor can it any 
more pronounce us sinless than the rigorous law which 
condemns a man to be hanged for murder can absolve 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



279 



a murderer, let his repentance and faith be ever so 
perfect. 

But Christ has so completely fulfilled our Creator's 
paradisiacal law of innocence, that we shall not be 
judged by that law, but by a law adapted to our pre- 
sent state and circumstances — a milder law, called the 
law of Christ, i. e., the Mediator's law, which is, like 
himself, full of evangelical grace and truth. We are, 
therefore, not without law to God, nor yet under a 
Christless law with Adam, but under a law to Christ, 
that is, under the law of our royal Priest, the evangeli- 
cal law of liberty. A more gracious law this, which 
allows a sincere repentance, and is fulfilled by loving 
faith. Now, as we shall be judged by this laic of 
liberty, we maintain not only that it may, but also 
that it must, be kept ; and that it is actually kept by 
established Christians, according to the last and fullest 
edition of it, which is that of the New Testament. 
Nor do we think it " shocking" to hear an adult be- 
liever say, The laio of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death. For what the law [of innocence, or the Mosaic 
law] coidd not do in that it was iceak through the 
flesh, God, sending his own Son, condemned sin in 
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might 
be [evangelically] fulfilled in us, who walk not after 
the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

It is this view of the law under which we are placed 
that St. James takes when he says, So speak ye, and 
so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of 
liberty, James ii, 12. Now, as a reasonable father 
never requires of his child who is only ten years old 
the works of one who is thirty years of age, so our 



280 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



heavenly Father never expects of us, in our debilitated 
state, the obedience of immortal Adam in paradise, or 
the uninterrupted worship of sleepless angels in heaven. 
We are persuaded, therefore, that for Christ's sake he 
is pleased with an humble obedience to our present 
light, and a loving exertion of our present powers; 
accepting our gospel services according to what tve 
have, and not according to what we have not. Nor 
dare we call that loving exertion of our present power 
sin, lest by so doing we should contradict the Scrip- 
tures, confound sin and obedience, and remove all the 
landmarks which divide the devil's common from the 
Lord's vineyard. 

Although adult, established believers, or perfect 
Christians, may admit of many involuntary mistakes, 
errors, and faults, and of many involuntary improprie- 
ties of speech and behaviour ; yet, so long as their will 
is bent on doing God's will — so long as they walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit — so long as they 
fulfil the law of liberty by pure love, they do not sin 
according to the gospel : because (evangelically speak- 
ing) sin is the transgression, and love is the fulfilling 
of the law. Far, then, from thinking that there is the 
least absurdity in saying daily, Vouchsafe to keep me 
this day without sin, we doubt not but in the believers 
who walk in the light as Chi^ist is in the light, that 
deep petition is answered ; the righteousness of the law, 
which they are under, is fulfilled ; and, of consequence, 
an evangelically sinless perfection is daily experienced. 
I say evangelically sinless, because, without the word 
evangelically, the phrase sinless perfection gives occa- 
sion for cavilling to those who seek it, as Mr. Wesley 
intimates in the following quotation, which is taken 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



281 



from his Plain Account of Christian Perfection: — 
" 1. Not only sin, properly so called, that is, a volun- 
tary transgression of a known law, but sin, improperly 
so called, that is, an involuntary transgression of a 
divine law, known or unknown, needs the atoning 
blood. 2. I believe there is no such perfection in this 
life as excludes these involuntary transgressions, which 
I apprehend to be consequent on the ignorance and 
mistakes inseparable from mortality. 3. Therefore, 
sinless perfection is a phrase I never use, lest I should 
seem to contradict myself. 4. I believe a person filled 
with the love of God is still liable to these involuntary 
transgressions. 5. Such transgressions you may call 
sins, if you please : I do not." 



SECTION III. 

SEVERAL PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIAN PERFEC- 
TION ANSWERED. 

"It will supersede the use of mortification and 
watchfulness ; for if sin be dead, what need have we 
to mortify it and watch against it ?" 

This objection has some plausibility ; I shall there- 
fore answer it various ways. 1. If Adam, in his state 
of paradisiacal perfection, needed perfect watchfulness 
and perfect mortification, how much more do we need 
them, who find the tree of knowledge of good and 
evil planted, not only in the midst of our gardens, but 
in the midst of our houses, markets, and churches? 
2. When we are delivered from sin, are we delivered 
from peccability and temptation? When the inward 
man of sin is dead, is the devil dead? Is the cor- 



282 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



ruption that is in the world destroyed ? And have we 
not still our five senses, and our appetites, to keep with 
all diligence, as well as our hearts, that the tempter 
may not enter into us, or that we may not enter 
into his temptations? Lastly, Jesus Christ, as son of 
Mary, was a perfect man. But how was he kept so 
to the end ? Was it not by keeping his mouth with a 
bridle while the ungodly were in his sight, and by 
guarding all his senses with perfect assiduity, that the 
wicked one might not touch them to his hurt 1 And 
if Christ, our head, kept his human perfection only 
through watchfulness and constant self-denial, is it not 
absurd to suppose that his perfect members can keep 
their perfection without treading in his steps ? 

" Your doctrine of perfection makes it needless for 
perfect Christians to say the Lord's prayer, 1 Forgive us 
our trespasses? " 

We answer, 1. Though a perfect Christian does not 
trespass voluntarily, and break the law of love, yet he 
daily breaks the law of Adamic perfection, through the 
imperfection of his bodily and mental powers : and he 
has frequently a deeper sense of these involuntary tres- 
passes than many weak believers have of their volun- 
tary breaches of the moral law. 2. Although a perfect 
Christian has a witness that his sins are now forgiven 
in the court of his conscience, yet he knoivs the terrors 
of the Lord : he hastens to meet the awful day of God : 
he waits for the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ 
in the character of a righteous Judge: he keeps an eye 
to the awful tribunal before which he must soon be 
justified or condemned by his words: he is conscious 
that his final justification is not yet come : and there- 
fore he would think himself a monster of stupidity and 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



283 



pride, if, with an eye to his absolution in the great day, 
he scrupled saying, to the end of his life, " Forgive us 
our trespasses." 3. He is surrounded with sinners who 
daily trespass against him, and whom he is daily 
bound to forgive; and his praying that he may be for- 
given now, and in the great day, as he forgave others, 
reminds him that he may forfeit his pardon, and binds 
him more to the performance of the important duty of 
forgiving his enemies. And, 4. His charity is so ardent 
that it melts him, as it were, into the common mass of 
mankind. Bowing himself, therefore, under the enor- 
mous load of all the wilful trespasses which his fellow- 
mortals, and particularly his relatives and his brethren, 
daily commit against God, he says, with a fervour that 
imperfect Christians seldom feel, " Forgive us our tres- 
passes" &c. We are heartily sorry for our misdo- 
ings : [my own and those of my fellow sinners :] the 
remembrance of them is grievous unto us : the burden 
of them is intolerable. Nor do we doubt but when 
the spirit of mourning leads a numerous assembly into 
the vale of humiliation, the person who puts the shoul- 
der of faith most readily to the common burden of sin, 
and heaves the most powerfully in order to roll the 
enormous load into the Redeemer's grave, is the most 
perfect penitent — the most exact observer of the apos- 
tolic precept, Bear ye one another's burdens, and so 
fulfil the law of Christ; and, of consequence, we do not 
scruple to say, that such a person is the most perfect 
Christian in the whole assembly. 

"Your account of Christian perfection represents 
adult believers as free from sin : now sin is that which 
humbles us, and drives us to Christ, and therefore if we 



284 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



were free from indwelling sin, we should lose a most 
powerful incentive to humility." 

We answer : Sin never humbled any soul Who 
has more sin than Satan ? And who is prouder ? Did 
sin make our first parents humble? If it did not, how 
do our brethren suppose that its nature is altered for the 
better ? Who was humbler than Christ ? But was he 
indebted to sin for his humility? Do we not see daily, 
that the more sinful men are, the prouder they are also ? 
If sin be necessary to make us humble, and to keep us 
near Christ, does it not follow that glorified saints, whom 
all acknowledge to be sinless, are all proud despisers of 
Christ 1 See we not sin enough, when we look ten or 
twenty years back, to humble us to the dust for ever, if 
sin can do it ? Need we plead for any more of it in 
our hearts and lives? If the sins of our youth do not 
humble us, are the sins of our old age likely to do it? 
Lastly, what is indwelling sin but indwelling pride? 
At least, is not inbred pride one of the chief ingredients 
of indwelling sin ? And how can pride be productive 
of humility ? Can a serpent beget a dove ? And will 
not men gather grapes from thorns sooner than hu- 
mility of heart from haughtiness of spirit? 



SECTION IV. 

THE ABSURDITY OF SAYTNG THAT ALL OUR CHRISTIAN 
PERFECTION IS IN THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 

If by being perfect only in Christ be meant that 
we can attain to Christian perfection no other way than 
by being perfectly grafted in him, the true vine, and by 
deriving, like vigorous branches, the perfect sap of his 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



285 



perfect righteousness to enable us to bring forth fruit 
unto perfection, we are entirely agreed : for we perpetu- 
ally assert, that nothing but Christ dwelling in our 
hearts by faith, or, which is all one, nothing but the 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus can make us 
free from the law of sin^ and perfect us in love. But 
as we never advanced that Christian perfection is at- 
tainable any other way than by a faith that roots and 
grounds us in Christ ; we doubt some mystery of ini- 
quity lies hid under the equivocal phrases, " All our per- 
fection is in Christ's person — We are perfect in him 3 
and not in ourselves." 

Should those who use them insinuate by such lan- 
guage that we cannot be perfect by an inherent per- 
sonal conformity to God's holiness, because Christ is 
thus perfect for us ; or should they mean that we are 
perfect in him just as country freeholders, entirely 
strangers to state affairs, are perfect politicians in the 
knights of the shire who represent them in parliament ; 
as the sick in a hospital are perfectly healthy in the 
physician that gives them his attendance ; as the blind 
man enjoyed perfect sight in Christ when he saw 
walking men like moving trees ; as the filthy leper was 
perfectly clean in our Lord before he had felt the power 
of his gracious words, I will, be thou clean ; or as 
hungry Lazarus was perfectly fed in the person of the 
rich man at whose gate he lay starving — should this, 
I say, be their meaning, we are conscience-bound to 
oppose it, for the reasons contained in the following 
queries : — 

1. If believers are perfect because Christ is perfect for 
them, why does the apostle exhort them to go on to 
perfection ? 



286 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



2. If all our perfection be inherent in Christ, is it not 
strange that St. Paul should exhort us to perfect holi- 
ness in the fear of the Lord, by cleansing ourselves 
of all Jilthiness of flesh and spirit ? Did not Christ 
perfect his own holiness ? And will his personal sanc- 
tity be imperfect till we have cleaned ourselves from all 
defilement ? 

3. If Christ be perfect for us, why does St. James 
say, Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may 
be perfect? Is Christ's perfection suspended on the 
perfect work of our patience ? 

4. Upon the scheme which I oppose, what does St. 
Peter mean when he says, After ye have suffered 
a while, the Lord m,ake you perfect ? What has our 
suffering a while to do with Christ's perfection ? Was 
not Christ made perfect through his own suffering f 

5. If believers were perfect in Christ's person, they 
would all be equally perfect. But is this the case? 
Does not St. John talk of some who were perfected, 
and others who are not yet made perfect in love? 
Besides, the apostle exhorts to be perfect, not in Anti- 
nomian notions, but in all the will of God, and in 
every good work; and common sense dictates that 
there is some difference between our good works and 
the person of Christ. 

6. Does not our Lord himself show, that his per- 
sonal righteousness will by no means be accepted in- 
stead of our perfection, where he says, "Every branch in 
me that beareth not fruit [or whose fruit never grows 
to any perfection, see Luke viii, 14] my Father taketh 
it away," far from imputing it to his perfect fruit- 
fulness ? 

7. In the nature of things, can Christ's perfection 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



287 



supply the want of that perfection which he calls us to ? 
Is there not a more essential difference between Christ's 
perfection and that of a believer, than there is between 
the perfection of a rose and that of the grass of the 
field ? between the perfection of a soaring eagle and 
that of a creeping insect ? If our Lord is the head of 
the church, and we the members, is it not absurd to 
suppose that his perfection becomes us in every respect? 
Were I allowed to carry on a Scriptural metaphor, I 
would ask, Is not the perfection of the head very dif- 
ferent from that of the hand? And do we not take 
advantage of the credulity of the simple when we 
make them believe that an impenitent adulterer and 
murderer is perfect in Christ ; or, if you please, that a 
crooked leg and cloven foot are perfectly handsome, if 
they do but somehow belong to a beautiful face ? 

8. Let us illustrate this a little more. Does not the 
Redeemer's personal perfection consist in being God 
and man in one person ; in his being eternally begot- 
ten by the Father as the Son of God, and unbegotten 
in time by a father, as the son of man ; in having given 
his life a ransom for all ; in his having taken it up 
again ; and his standing in the midst of the throne, 
able to save to the uttermost all thai come unto God 
through him ? Consider this, candid believer, and say 
if any man or angel can decently hope that such an 
incommunicable perfection can ever fall to his share. 

9. As the Redeemer's personal perfection cannot suit 
the redeemed, no more can the personal perfection of 
the redeemed be found in the Redeemer. A believer's 
perfection consists in such a degree of faith as works 
by perfect love. And does not this high degree of faith 
chiefly imply uninterrupted self-diffidence, self-denial, 



288 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



self-despair ? a heartfelt, ceaseless recourse to the blood, 
merits, and righteousness of Christ? and a grate- 
ful love to him, because he first loved us, and fervent 
charity to all mankind for his sake? Three things 
these which, in the very nature of things, either cannot 
be in the Saviour at all, or cannot possibly be in him in 
the same manner in which they must be in believers. 

10. Is not the doctrine of our being perfect in Christ's 
person big with mischief? Does it not open a refuge 
of lies to the loosest ranters in the land? Are there 
none who say, We are perfect in Christ's person ? In 
him we have perfect chastity and honesty, perfect 
temperance and meekness; and we should be guilty 
of Pharisaic insolence if we patched his perfection 
with filthy rags of our personal holiness? And has 
not this doctrine a direct tendency to set godliness 
aside, and to countenance gross Antinomianism ? 

Lastly. When our Lord preached the doctrine of per- 
fection, did he not do it in such a manner as to demon- 
strate that our perfection must be personal? Did he 
ever say, If thou wilt be perfect, only believe that I am 
perfect for thee? On the contrary, did he not declare, 
If thou wilt be perfect, sell what thou hast, [part with 
all that stands in thy way,] and follow me in the way 
of perfection ? and again, Do good to them that hate 
you, that ye may be the children of your Father who 
is in heaven : Be ye perfect, even as your Father who 
is in heaven is perfect ? Who can read these words 
and not see that the perfection which Christ preached 
is a perfection of holy dispositions, productive of holy 
actions in all his followers ? and that, of consequence, 
it is a personal perfection, as much inherent in us, and 
yet as much derived from him, and dependant on him, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



289 



as the perfection of our bodily health ? the chief differ- 
ence consisting in this, that the perfection of our health 
comes to us from God in Christ, as the God of nature; 
whereas our Christian perfection comes to us from God 
in Christ, as the God of grace. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN PER- 
FECTION, TAKEN FROM CERTAIN PASSAGES OF 
HOLY SCRIPTURE, ANSWERED. 

SECTION L 

EXPOSITION OF 1 KINGS VIII, 46 : " IF THEY SIN AGAINST 
THEE, (FOR THERE IS NO MAN THAT SINNETH NOT,) 
AND THOU BE ANGRY WITH THEM," &C. 

No unprejudiced person who, in reading this pas- 
sage, takes the parenthesis (" for there is no man that 
sinneth not") in connection with the context, can, I 
think, help seeing that the Rev. Mr. Toplady, who, if 
I remember right, quotes this text against us, mistakes 
Solomon as much as Mr. Hill does St. John. The 
meaning is evidently, there is no man who is not 
liable to sin, and that a man actually sins when he 
actually departs from God. Now peccability , or a lia- 
bleness to sin, is not indwelling sin ; for angels, Adam, 
and Eve, were all liable to sin, in their sinless state. 
And that there are some men who do not actually sin, 
is indubitable : 1. From the hypothetical phrase in the 
context, if any man sin, which shows that their sinning 
is not unavoidable. 2. From God's anger against 
those that sin, which is immediately mentioned. Hence 
13 



290 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



it appears that so certain as God is not angry with all 
his people, some of them do not sin in the sense of the 
wise man. And, 3. From Solomon's intimating that 
these very men who have sinned, or have actually de- 
parted from God, may bethink themselves, repent, and 
turn to God with all their heart, and with all their 
soul, that is, may attain the dispensation ; the two poles 
not being more opposed to each other than sinning is 
to repenting, and departing from God to returning to 
him with all our heart and with all our soul. Take, 
therefore, the whole passage together, and you have a 
demonstration that where sin hath abounded, there 
grace may much more abound. And what is it but a 
demonstration that our doctrine is not chimerical ? For 
if Jews, [Solomon himself being judge,] instead of sin- 
ning and departing from God, can repent and turn to 
him with all their heart, how much more Christians, 
whose privileges are much greater ! 

If Mr. Hill will consult the original of this passage, 
"There is no man, &c.," he will find that the word 
translated sinneth is in the future tense, which is often 
used for an indefinite tense in the potential mood, be- 
cause the Hebrews have no such mood or tense ; there- 
fore our translators would only have done justice to the 
original, as well as to the context, if they had rendered 
the whole clause, There is no man that may not sin, 
instead of, There is no man that sinneth not. 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



291 



SECTION II. 

EXPOSITION OF ECCLES. VII, 20 : " THERE IS NOT A JUST 
MAN UPON EARTH THAT DOES GOOD AND SINNETH NOT." J 

1. We are not sure that these are to be regarded 
as the words of Solomon ; for he may introduce here 
the very same man who, four verses before, says. Be 
not righteous overmuch, &c. ; and Mr. Toplady may 
mistake the meaning in one text, as Dr. Trapp has 
done in. ihe other. But, 2. Supposing Solomon speaks, 
may not he in general assert what St. Paul does, Rom. 
iii, 23, All have sinned and come short of the glory 
of God, the just not excepted ? Is not this the very 
sense which Canne, Calvinist as he was, gives to the 
wise man's words when he refers the reader to this 
assertion of the apostle 7 And did we ever speak against 
this true doctrine ? 3. If you take the original word sin 
in the lowest sense which it bears ; if it mean here what 
it does Judges xx, 16, namely, to miss a mark, we 
shall not differ ; for we maintain that, according to the 
standard of paradisiacal perfection, there is not a just 
man upon earth that does good and misses not the 
mark of that perfection, that is, that does not lessen the 
good he does by some involuntary, and therefore (evan- 
gelically speaking) sinless defect. 4. It is bold to pre- 
tend to overthrow the glorious liberty of God's children, 
which is asserted in a hundred plain passages of the 
New Testament, by producing so vague a text as 
Eccles. vii, 20. 



292 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



SECTION ni. 

THE TRUE MEANING OF GAL. V, 17 : " THE FLESH LUSTETH 
AGAINST THE SPIRIT, AND THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE 
FLESH, SO THAT YE CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT YE 
WOULD." 

1. St. Paul wrote these words to the carnal, fallen 
Galatians. To them he said, So that ye cannot do 
the things that ye would: and there was good reason 
why they could not do what they had a weak desire 
to do. They were bewitched by the flesh, and by car- 
nal teachers, who led them from the power of the Spirit 
to the weakness of the letter; yea, to the letter of 
Judaism too. But did he not speak of himself to the 
Philippians in a very different strain? Did he not 
declare, I can do all things through Christ who 
strengthened me? And cannot every believer who 
steadily walks in the Spirit say the same thing? Who 
does not see the flaw of this argument ? The disobe- 
dient, fallen, bewitched believers of Galatia, of whom 
St. Paul stood in doubt, could not but fulfil the lusts of 
the flesh, when they were led by the flesh : neither hot 
nor cold, like the Laodiceans, they could neither be 
perfect Christians nor perfect worldlings, because they 
fully sided neither with the Spirit nor with the flesh ; 
or, to use the apostle's words, they coidd not do the 
things that they would, through the opposition which 
the flesh made against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh; neither of these principles being yet fully 
victorious in their halting, distracted hearts: therefore 
this must be also the miserable case of all obedient, 



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293 



faithful, established believers through all ages, all the 
world over ! What has this Antinomian conclusion to 
do with the Scriptural premises ? When I assert that 
those who have put out their knees cannot run a race 
swiftly, do I so much as intimate that no man can be 
a swift racer ? 

The sense which is affixed to this text by our oppo- 
nents is entirely overturned by the context. Read the 
preceding verse, and you will find a glorious though 
conditional promise of the liberty which we plead for : 
This I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
fulfil the [sinful] lusts of the flesh ; that is, far from 
harbouring either outward or inward sin, ye shall, with 
myself, and as many as are perfect, steadily keep your 
body under, and be in every thing spiritually minded, 
which is life and peace. 

2. It appears that the genuine meaning of Gal. v, 17, 
when considered in the light of the context, is fairly 
expressed in the following lines : " The flesh and the 
Spirit are two contrary principles. They that are in } 
or walk after, the flesh, cannot please God. And ye 
are undoubtedly in the flesh, and walk after the flesh, 
while ye bite and devour one another. This I say, 
then, Walk in the Spirit ; be led by the Spirit ; and 
ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, as ye now do. 
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and prevails 
in all carnal people ; and the Spirit lusteth against 
the flesh in all spiritual people; and these two, far 
from nestling together, as Antinomian teachers make 
you believe, are contrary to each other. They are 
irreconcilable enemies ; so that, as obedient, spiritual 
believers, while they are led by the Spirit, cannot do 
what they would do if they were led by the flesh, ye 



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bewitched, carnal, disobedient Galatians, who are led 
by the flesh, cannot do what ye would do if ye were 
led by the Spirit, and what ye have still some desire to 
do, so far as ye have not yet absolutely quenched the 
Spirit. Would ye then return to your liberty ? Return 
to your duty ; change your guide ; forsake the carnal 
mind; let Christ be formed in you; be led by the 
Spirit ; so shall ye fulfil the law of Christy and it 
shall no more condemn you. For if ye be led by 
the Spirit, ye are not tinder the curse of the law : 
ye are equally free from the bondage of the Mosaic 
law and from the condemnation of the law of Christ," 
Gal. v, 16, 17, 18. 

3. If I am not greatly mistaken, the preceding re- 
marks prove, 1. That when our opponents pretend to 
demonstrate the necessary indwelling of sin in all be- 
lievers from Gal. v, 17, they wretchedly tear that text 
from the context, to make it speak a language which 
St. Paul abhors. 2. That the text, fairly taken toge- 
ther with the context, and the design of the whole 
epistle, is a proof that obedient, spiritual believers can 
do what the bewitched Galatians could not do. 



SECTION IV. 

ST. PAUL, WHILE AN APOSTLE, WAS NOT CARNAL AND SOLD 
UNDER SIN. TRUE MEANING OF ROM. VII, 14. 

1. St. Paul no more professes himself actually a 
carnal man in Rom. vii, 14, than he professes himself 
actually a liar in Rom. iii, 7, where he says, But if 
the truth of God has more abounded through my lie, 



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295 



why am I yet judged as a sinner ? He no more pro- 
fesses himself a man actually sold under sin, than 
St. James and his fellow-believers profess themselves a 
generation of vipers, and actual cursers of men, when 
the one wrote, and the others read, The tongue can 
no man tame : it is full of deadly poison : therewith 
curse we men. 

2. When St. Paul reproves the partiality of some of 
the Corinthians to this or that preacher, he introduces 
Apollos and himself ; though it seems that his reproof 
was chiefly intended for other preachers, who fomented 
a party spirit in the corrupted church at Corinth. And 
then he says, These things, brethren, I have in a 
figure transferred to myself arid Apollos, for your 
sakes ; that ye might learn in us not to think of 
men above that which is written. By the same figure 
he says of himself, what he might have said of any 
other man, or of all mankind, Though I speak with 
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not 
charity, I am become as sounding brass. Thrice in 

• three verses he speaks of his not having charity : and 
suppose he had done it three hundred times, this would 
no more have proved that he was really uncharitable, 
than his saying, Rom. vii, 14, / am sold under sin, 
proves that he served the law of sin with his body, as 
a slave is forced to serve the master who bought him. 

3. It frequently happens also, that by a figure of 
rhetoric, which is called hypotyposis, writers relate 
things past or things to come in the present tense, that 
their narration may be more lively, and may make a 
stronger impression. Thus, Gen. vi, 17, we read, Be- 
hold, I, even I, do bring [that is, I will bring, one 
hundred and twenty years hence] a flood upon the 



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earth. Thus also 2 Sam. xxii, 1, 35, 48, When the 
Lord had delivered David out of the hands of his ene- 
mies, and had given him peace in all his borders, he 
spake the words of this song : — He teacheth [i. e., he 
taught] my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is 
[i. e., was] broken by mine arms. It is God that 
avengeth [i. e., that hath avenged] ?ne, — and that 
bring eth [i. e., hath brought] me forth from mine 
enemies. A thousand such expressions, or this figure 
continued through a thousand verses, would never prove 
that King Saul was alive, and that King David was not 
yet delivered for good out of his bloody hands. Now, 
if St. Paul, by a similar figure, which he carries through- 
out part of a chapter, relates his past experience in the 
present tense ; if the Christian apostle, to humble him- 
self, and to make his description more lively, and the 
opposition between the bondage of sin and Christian 
liberty more striking ; if the apostle, I say, with such a 
design as this, appears upon the stage of instruction in 
his old Jewish dress, — a dress this in which he could 
serve God day and night, and yet, like another Ahab, 
breathe threatenings and- slaughter against God's chil- 
dren ; and if in this dress he says, / am carnal, sold 
tinder sin, &c. ; is it not ridiculous to measure his 
growth as an apostle of Christ by the standard of his 
stature when he was a Jewish bigot, a fiery zealot, full 
of good meanings and bad performances 7 

4. The states of all souls may, in general, be reduced 
to three : — h The state of unawakened sinners, who 
quietly sleep in the chains of their sins, and dream of 
self-righteousness and heaven ; 2. That of awakened, 
uneasy, reluctant sinners, who try in vain to break the 
galling chains of their sins ; and 3. That of delivered 



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297 



sinners, or victorious believers, who enjoy the liberty of 
God's children. This last state is described in Rom. 
vii, 4, 6. The rest of that chapter is judiciously brought 
in, to show how the unawakened sinner is roused out 
of his carnal state, and how the awakened sinner is 
driven to Christ for liberty by the lashing and binding 
commandment. The apostle shows this by observing 
[ver. 7, &c] how the law makes a sinner [or, if you 
please, made him] pass from the unawakened to the 
awakened state. I had not known sin, says he, but 
by the law, (fee. When he had described his un- 
awakened state without the lav/, and began to describe 
his awakened state under the law, nothing was more 
natural than to change the time or tense. But having 
already used the past tense in the description of the 
first, or the unawakened state ; and having said, With- 
out the law sin was dead — I was alive without the 
law once — Sin revived and I died, &c, he could no 
more use that tense when he began to describe the 
second, or awakened state ; he was therefore obliged to 
use another tense, and none in that case was fitter than 
the present ; just as if he had said, When I died to my 
self-righteous hopes, (fee, the language of my heart was, 
I am carnal, sold under sin, (fee. It is, therefore, with 
the utmost rhetorical propriety that the apostle says, 
I am, and not I was, carnal, (fee. 



SECTION V. 

Paul's thorn in the flesh explained. 

"There was given me a thorn in the flesh, the mes- 
senger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted 
13* 



298 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

above measure, 2 Cor. xii, 7. Now what could this 
thorn in the flesh be but a sinful lust? And what the 
messenger of Satan, but pride or immoderate anger ?" 

1. You entirely mistake the apostle's meaning. While 
you try to make him a moderate imperfectionist, you 
make him an impudent Antinomian ; for, speaking of 
his thorn in the flesh, and of this messenger, he calls 
them his infirmities. Now if his infirmities were pride, 
a wrathful disposition, and a filthy lust, did he not act 
the part of a filthy Antinomian when he said that he 
gloried in them ? Would not even Paul's carnal man have 
blushed to speak thus? Far from glorying in his pride, 
wrath, or indwelling lust, did he not groan, O wretched 
man that I am? 

2. The apostle, still speaking of his thorn in the 
flesh, and of Satan buffeting him by proxy, and still 
calling these trials his infirmities, explains himself far- 
ther in these words : Therefore I take pleasure in 
infirmities, in reproaches, in persecutions, fyc, for 
Christ's sake : for when I am weak then am I strong. 
Those infirmities, that thorn in the flesh, that buf- 
feting of Satan, cannot be indwelling sin, or any out- 
breaking of it, for the devil himself could do no more than 
to take pleasure in his wickedness; and in Rom. vii, 
the carnal penitent himself delights in the law of God 
after the inward man, instead of taking pleasure in his 
indwelli ug sin. 

3. The infirmities in which St. Paul glories and 
takes pleasure were such as had been given him to 
keep him humble after his revelations. There was 
given to me a thorn in the flesh, &c, 2 Cor. xii, 7. 
Those infirmities and that thorn were not then in- 
dwelling sin, for indwelling sin was not given him after 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



299 



his visions, seeing [according to Calvinism] it stuck fast 
in him long before he went to Damascus. It is absurd, 
therefore, to suppose that God gave him the thorn of 
indwelling sin afterward, or indeed that he gave it to 
him at all. 

4. If Mr. Hill wants to know what we understand 
by St. Paul's thorn in the flesh, and by the messenger 
of Satan that buffeted him, we reply, that we under- 
stand his bodily infirmities, the great weakness, and 
the violent headache with which Tertullian and St. 
Chrysostom inform us the apostle was afflicted. The 
same God who said to Satan concerning Job, Behold 
he is in thine hand, to touch his bone and his flesh, 
but save his life ; the same God who permitted that 
adversary to bind the daughter of Abraham with a 
spirit of bodily infirmity fox eighteen years ; the same 
gracious God, I say, permitted Satan to afflict St. Paul's 
body with uncommon pains ; and at times, it seems, 
with preternatural weakness, which made his appear- 
ance and delivery contemptible in the eyes of his ad- 
versaries. That this is not a conjecture, grounded upon 
uncertain tradition, is evident from the apostle's own 
words two pages before. His letters, say they, [that 
buffeted me in the name of Satan,] are weighty and 
powerful ; but his bodily presence is iveak, and his 
speech contemptible, 2 Cor. x, 10. And soon after, de- 
scribing these emissaries of the devil, he says, Such 
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming 
themselves into the apostles of Christ : [to oppose me 
and prejudice you against my ministry :] and no mar- 
vel ; for Satan himself [who sets them on] is trans- 
formed into an angel of light, 2 Cor. xi, 13. But if 
the thorn in the flesh be all one with the buffeting 



300 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 

messenger of Satan, St. Paul's meaning is evidently 
this : " God, who suffered the Canaanites to be scourges 
in the sides of the Israelites, and thorns in their 
eyes, (Josh, xxiii, 13,) has suffered Satan to bruise 
my heel, while I bruise his head; and that ad- 
versary afflicts me thus, by his thorns and pricking 
briers, that is, by false apostles, who buffet me through 
malicious misrepresentations, which render me vile in 
your sight." This sense is strongly countenanced by 
these words of Ezekiel : They shall know that I am the 
Lord, and there shall be no more a pricking brier to 
the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that 
are round about them, that despised them. 



SECTION VI. 

EXPOSITION OF 1 JOHN I, 8 : " IF WE SAY WE HAVE NO SIN, 
WE DECEIVE OURSELVES, AND THE TRUTH IS NOT IN US." 

1. In this passage St. John designs to strike a blow 
at Pharisaic professors. There were in his time, as 
there are in our own, numbers of men who had never 
been properly convinced of sin, and who boasted, as St. 
Paul once did, that touching the righteousness of the 
law } they were blameless ; they served God ; they did 
their duty ; they gave alms ; they never did anybody 
any harm : they thanked God they were not as other 
men ; but especially that they were not like those 
mourners in Sion, who were, no doubt, very wicked, 
since they made so much ado about God's mercy, and 
a powerful application of the Redeemer's cleansing 
blood. How proper then was it for St. John to inform 
his readers that these whole-hearted Christians, these 



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301 



perfect Pharisees, were no better than liars and self 
deceivers; and that true Christian righteousness is 
always attended by a genuine conviction of our native 
depravity, and an humble acknowledgment of our actual 
transgressions. 

These things being premised, it appears that the text 
so dear to us, as mistaken by our opponents, has this 
fair and Scriptural meaning : 11 If we [followers of Him 
who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance] say we have no sin, [no native depravity from 
our first parents, and no actual sin, at least no such 
sin as deserves God's wrath; fancying we need not 
secure a particular application of Christ's atoning and 
purifying blood,] we deceive ourselves, and the truth 
[of repentance and faith] is not in us. 

That these words are levelled at the monstrous error 
of self-conceited and self-perfected Pharisees, and not at 
the glorious liberty of the children of God, appears 
to us indubitable from the following reasons: — 1. The 
immediately preceding verse strongly asserts this liberty. 
2. The verse immediately following secures it also, and 
cuts down the doctrine of our opponents ; the apostle's 
meaning being evidently this : " Though I write to you 
that if we say we are originally free from sin, and 
never did any harm, we deceive ourselves ; yet mis- 
take me not; I do not mean that we need con- 
tinue under the guilt, or in the moral infection of 
any sin, original or actual: for if we penitently and 
believingly confess both, he is faithful and just to for- 
give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness, whether it be native or self-contracted, inter- 
nal or external. Therefore if we have attained the 
glorious liberty of God's children, we need not, through 



302 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



voluntary humility, say that we do nothing- but sin. It 
will be sufficient, when we are cleansed from all 
unrighteousness, still to be deeply humbled for our 
present infirmities and for our past sins, confessing 
both with godly sorrow and filial shame. For if we 
should say, We have not sinned, [note, St. John does 
not write, If we should say, We do not sin,] we make 
him a liar, and the truth is not in us; common 
sense dictating, that if we have not sinned we speak 
an untruth when we profess that Christ has forgiven 
our sins. This appears to us the true meaning of 
John i, 8, when it is fairly considered in the light of the 
context. 

If these remarks be just, does it not appear that it is 
as absurd to stab Christian perfection through the sides 
of Job, Isaiah, and Solomon, as to set Peter, Paul, 
James, and John upon " cutting it up, root and 
branch? 11 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONTAINING A VARIETY OF ARGUMENTS TO PROVE 
THE MISCHIEVOUSNESS OF THE DOCTRINE OF 
CHRISTIAN IMPERFECTION. 

The following arguments are intended to prove the 
mischievousness of Mr. Hill's doctrine of Christian 
imperfection. . 

I. It strikes at the doctrine of salvation by faith. 
"By grace are ye saved through faith," not only from 
the guilt and outward acts of sin, but also from its root 
and secret buds. " Not of* works," says the apostle, 

*Here, and in some other places, St. Paul by "works" means 
only the deeds of a Christless, antimediatorial law, and the obedi- 



BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 



303 



" lest any man should [Pharisaically] boast f and may 
-we not add, Not of death, lest he that had the power 
of death, that is, the devil, should [absurdly] boast? 
Does not what strikes at the doctrine of faith, and 
abridges the salvation which we obtain by it, equally 
strike at Christ's power and glory ? Is it not the busi- 
ness of faith to receive Christ's saving word, to appre- 
hend the power of his sanctifying Spirit, and to inherit 
all the great promises by which he saves his penitent, 
believing people from their sins ? Is it not evident that 
if no believers can be saved from indwelling sin through 
faith, we must correct the apostle's doctrine, and say, 
" By grace are ye saved from the remains of sin, 
through death?" And can unprejudiced Protestants 
admit so Christ-debasing, death-exalting a tenet, with- 
out giving a dangerous blow to the genuine doctrines 
of the Reformation ? 

II. It dishonours Christ as a Prophet: for, as such, 
he came to teach us to be now " meek and lowly in 
heart:" but the imperfect gospel of the day teaches 
that we must necessarily continue passionate and proud 
in heart till death ; for pride and immoderate anger are, 
I apprehend, two main branches of indwelling sin. 
Again : my motto demonstrates that he publicly 

ence paid to the Jewish covenant, which is frequently called "the 
law," in opposition to the Christian covenant, which is commonly 
called " the gospel," that is, the gospel of Christ, because Christ's 
gospel is the most excellent of all the gospel dispensations. The 
apostle, therefore, by the expression, "not of works," does by no 
means exclude from "final" salvation, the law of faith, and the 
works done in obedience to that law : for, in the preceding verse, he 
secures the obedience of faith when he says, " Ye are saved [that 
is, made partakers of the blessing of the Christian dispensation] by 
grace through faith." Here then the word " by grace" secures the 
first gospel axiom, and the word " through faith" secures the second. 



304 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



taught the multitudes the doctrine of perfection, and 
Mr. Hill insinuates that this doctrine is " shocking," not 
to say " blasphemous." 

III. It disgraces Christ as the Captain of our salva- 
tion: for St. Paul says, that our Captain furnishes Us 
with "weapons mighty through God to the pulling 
down of Satan's strong holds, and to the bringing of 
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 
But our opponents represent the devil's strong hold as 
absolutely impregnable. No weapons of our warfare 
can pull down Apollyon's throne. Inbred sin shall 
maintain its place in man's heart till death strike the 
victorious blow. Christ may indeed fight against the 
Jericho within, as " Joab fought against Rabbah of the 
children of Ammon :" but then he must send for death, 
as Joab sent for David, saying, " I have fought against 
Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters : now, 
therefore, gather the rest of the people together, encamp 
against the city, and take it, lest I take the city, and it 
be called after my name," 2 Sam. xii, 27, 28. 

IV. It pours contempt upon him as the Surety of the 
new covenant, in which God has engaged himself to 
deliver obedient believers " from their enemies, that they 
may serve him without [tormenting] fear, all the days 
of their lives." For how does he execute his office in this 
respect, if he never sees that such believers be delivered 
from their most oppressive and inveterate enemy, indwell- 
ing sin? Or if that deliverance take place only at death, 
how can they, in consequence of their death freedom, 
" serve God without fear all the days of their lives ? 

V. It affronts Christ as a King, when it represents 
the believer's heart, which is Christ's spiritual throne, as 
being necessarily full of indwelling sin — a spiritual rebel, 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



305 



who, notwithstanding the joint efforts of Christ and the 
believer, maintains his power against them both during 
the term of life. Again : does not a good king deliver 
his loyal subjects from oppression, and avenge them of 
a tyrannical adversary, when they cry to him in their 
distress ? But does our Lord show himself such a king, 
if he never avenge them, nor turn the usurper, the mur- 
derer, sin, out of their breasts ? Once more : if our de- 
liverance from sin depend upon the stroke of death, and 
not upon a stroke of Christ's grace, might we not call 
upon the king of terrors, as well as upon the King of 
saints, for deliverance from the remains of sin ? But 
where is the difference between saying, " O death, help 
us !" and crying, "O Baal, save us ?" 

VI. It injures Christ as a Restorer of pure, spiritual 
worship in God's spiritual temple, the heart of man. 
For it indirectly represents him as a Pharisaic Saviour, 
who made much ado about driving, with a whip, harm- 
less sheep and oxen out of his Father's material temple ; 
but who gives full leave to Satan, not only to bring 
sheep and doves into the believer's heart, but also to 
harbour and breed there during the term of life the 
swelling toad, pride; and the hissing viper, envy; to 
say nothing of the greedy dog, avarice, and the filthy 
swine, impurity; under pretence of "exercising the 
patience, and engaging the industry" of the worshippers, 
if we may believe the Calvin of the day. (See the 
argument against Christian perfection at the end of 
this section.) 

VII. It insults Christ as a Priest ; for our Melchise- 
dec shed his all-cleansing blood upon the cross, and 
now pours his all-availing prayer before the throne; 
asking that, upon evangelical terms, we may now be 



306 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



"cleansed from all unrighteousness, and perfected in 
one." But if we assert that believers, let them be ever 
so faithful, can never be thus cleansed and x perfected in 
one till death comes to the Saviour's assistance, do we 
not place our Lord's cleansing blood, and powerful in- 
tercession, and of consequence his priesthood, in an 
unscriptural and contemptible light ? 

Should Mr. Hill attempt to retort this argument by 
saying, " that it is our doctrine, not his, which dero- 
gates from the honour of Christ's priesthood, because 
we should no longer need our High Priest's blood if we 
were cleansed from all sin ;" I reply : — 

(1.) Perfect Christians need as much the virtue of 
Christ's blood, to prevent the guilt and pollution of sin 
from returning, as imperfect Christians want it to drive 
that guilt and pollution away. It is not enough that 
the blood of the true paschal Lamb has been sprinkled 
upon our souls to keep off the destroyer; it must still 
remain there to hinder his coming back " with seven 
other spirits more wicked than himself." (2.) Mr. Hill 
is in the dark; he calls for a light; and when it is 
brought, he observes, The darkness of the room is now 
totally removed. " Is it so, sir ?" replies his footman ; 
" then you need these candles no more ; if they have 
totally removed the darkness of your apartment, you 
have no more need of them." Mr. Hill smiles at the 
absurdity of his servant's argument ; and yet it is well 
if he does not admire the wisdom of my opponent's 
objection. (3.) The hearts of perfect Christians are 
cleansed, and kept clean, by faith ; and Christian per- 
fection means the perfection of Christian faith, whose 
property it is to endear Christ and his blood more and 
more ; nothing then can be less reasonable than to say 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



307 



that, upon our principles, perfect believers have done 
with the atoning blood. (4.) Such believers continually 
overcome the accuser of the brethren through the 
blood of the Lamb ; there is no moment, therefore, in 
which they can spare it : they are feeble believers who 
can yet dispense with its constant application ; and 
hence it is that they continue feeble. None make so 
much use of Christ's blood as perfect Christians. Once 
it was only their medicine, which they took now and 
then, when a fit of fear, or a pang of guilt, obliged them 
to it ; but now it is the divine preservative, which keeps 
off the infection of sin. Now it is the reviving cordial, 
which they take to prevent their " growing weary, or 
faint in their minds." Now it is their daily drink ; now 
it is what they sprinkle their every thought, word, and 
work with. In a word, it is that blood which constantly 
speaks before God and in their consciences " better things 
than the blood of Abel," and actually procures for them 
all the blessings which they enjoy or expect. To say, 
therefore, that the doctrine of Christian perfection super- 
sedes the need of Christ's blood, is not less absurd than 
to assert that the perfection of navigation renders the 
great deep a useless reservoir of water. Lastly: Are 
not the saints before the throne perfectly sinless ? And 
who are more ready than they to extol the blood and 
sing the song of the Lamb : " To him that loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in his blood, be glory," 
&c. ? If an angel preached to them the modern gospel, 
and desired them to plead for the remains of sin, lest 
they should lose their peculiar value for the atoning 
blood ; would not they all suspect him to be an angel 
of darkness, transforming himself into an angel of 
light? And shall we be the dupes of the tempter, who 



308 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



deceives good men, that they may deceive us by a simi- 
lar argument? 

VIII. It discredits Christ as the Fulfiller of the Fa- 
ther's promise, and as the Sender of the indwelling-, 
abiding Comforter, in order that our joy may be full. 
For the Spirit never takes his constant abode as a 
Comforter in a heart full of indwelling sin. If he visit 
such a heart with his consolations, it is only u as a 
guest that tarrieth but a day." When he enters a soul 
fraught with inbred corruption, he rather acts as a Re- 
prover than as a Comforter ; throwing down the tables 
of the spiritual money changers ; hindering the vessels, 
which are not holiness unto the Lord, from being carried 
through God's spiritual temple, and expelling, according 
to the degree of our faith, whatsoever would make God's 
house " a den of thieves." 

But, instead of this, Mr. Hill's doctrine considers the 
heart of a believer as a " den of lions ;" and represents 
Christ's Spirit, not as the destroyer, but as the keeper of 
the wild beasts, and evil tempers which dwell therein. 
This I conclude from these words of the Rev. Mr. Top- 
lady : — " They," indwelling sin and unholy tempers, 
" do not quite expire till the renewed soul is taken up 
from earth to heaven. In the mean time these heated 
remains of depravity will, too often, like prisoners in a 
dungeon, crawl toward the window, though in chains, 
and show themselves through the grate. Nay, I do not 
know whether the strivings of inherent corruption for 
mastery be not, frequently, more violent in a regenerate 
person than even in one who is dead in trespasses ; as 
wild beasts are sometimes the more rampant and furious 
for being wounded." — (See Caveat against Unsound 
Doctrines, p. 65.) When I read this gospel, I cannot 



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309 



but throw in a Caveat against Mr. Toplady's Caveat 
For if his be not unsound, every body must allow it to 
be uncomfortable and unsafe. Who would not think it 
dreadfully dangerous to dwell with one wild beast that 
cannot be killed, unless we are first killed ourselves? 
But how much more dangerous is it to be condemned 
to dwell for life with a number of them which are not 
only immortal, so long as we are alive, but " are some- 
times the more rampant and furious for being wounded !" 
The Saviour preached by Mr. Toplady only wounds 
the Egyptian dragon, the inward Pharaoh, and makes 
him rage ; but our Jesus drowns him in the sea of his 
own blood, barely by stretching out the rod of his power, 
when we stretch out to him our arms of faith. Mr. 
Hill's Redeemer only takes Agag prisoner, as double- 
minded Saul did ; but our Redeemer " hews him in 
pieces," as upright Samuel. The Christ of the Calvin- 
ists says, " Confine the enemy ; though he may possibly 
be fiercer than before ;" but ours " thrusts out the enemy 
before us, and says, Destroy," Deut. xxxiii, 27. O, ye 
preachers of finished salvation, we leave it to your 
candour to decide which of these doctrines brings most 
glory to the saving name of Jesus. 

IX. The doctrine of our necessary continuance in 
indwelling sin to our last moments makes us naturally 
overlook or despise the " exceeding great and precious 
promises given unto us, that by these we might be par- 
takers of the divine nature," that is, of God's perfect 
holiness ; " having escaped the corruption that is in the 
world through lust," 2 Pet. i, 4 ; and thus it naturally 
defeats the full effect of evangelical truths and minis- 
terial labours ; an effect this, which is thus described by 
St. Paul : " teaching every man in all wisdom, that we 



310 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus," that is, 
perfect according to the richest dispensation of divine 
grace, which is, " the gospel of Christ Jesus," Col. i, 28. 
Again : " The Scripture is profitable for instruction in 
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished to all good works," 2 Tim. iii, 16. 
Now we apprehend that the perfection which thoroughly 
furnishes believers unto all good works, is a perfection 
productive of all the " good works" evangelically as well 
as providentially "prepared that we should walk in 
them" before death : because, (whatever Mr. Hill may 
insinuate to the contrary in England, and father Walsh 
at Paris.) the Scriptures say. " Whatsoever thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no 
work nor device" in death, that is, " in the grave whither 
thou goest." For' as the tree falls, so it lies : if it falls 
full of rottenness with a brood of vipers, and a never- 
dying worm in its hollow centre, it will continue in that 
very condition ; and wo to the man who trusts that the 
pangs of death will kill the worm, or that a purgative 
fire will spare the rotten wood and consume the vipers ! 

X. It defeats in part the end of the gospel precepts, 
to the fulfilling of which gospel promises are but means. 
" Ail the law, the prophets," and the apostolic writings, 
"hang on these two commandments: — Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy 
neighbour as thyself," through penitential faith in the 
light of thy dispensation ; that is, in two words, thou 
shalt be evangelically perfect. Now, if we believe 
that it is absolutely impossible to be thus perfect by 
keeping these two blessed commandments in faith, we 
cannot but believe also that God, who requires us to 
keep them, is defective in wisdom, equity, and good- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER* 



311 



ness, by requiring us to do what is absolutely impos- 
sible ; and we represent our Church as a wicked step- 
mother who betrays her children into the wanton com- 
mission of perjury, by requiring of every one of them, 
in the sacrament of baptism, a most solemn vow, by 
which they bind themselves, in the presence of God 
and of the congregation, that " they will keep God's 
holy will and commandments," that is, that they will 
keep God's evangelical law, " and walk in the same 
all the days of their life." 

XL It has a necessary tendency to unnerve our 
deepest prayers. How can we pray in faith that God 
would help us to " do his will on earth as it is done in 
heaven," or that he would " cleanse the thoughts of our 
hearts, that we may perfectly love him and worthily 
magnify his holy name how can we, I say, ask this 
in faith, if we disbelieve the very possibility of having 
these petitions answered ? And what poor encourage- 
ment has Epaphras, upon the scheme which we oppose, 
" always to labour fervently for the Colossians in prayer, 
that they might stand perfect and complete in the will 
of God ;" or St. Paul to wish that " the very God of 
peace would sanctify the Thessalonians wholly, and 
that their whole spirit, and soul, and body, might be 
preserved blameless," if these requests could not be 
granted before death, and were unavoidably to be grant- 
ed to them and to all believers in the article thereof? 

XII. It soothes lukewarm, unholy professors, and 
encourages them to sit quietly under the vine of Sodom, 
and under their own barren fig-tree : I mean under the 
baneful influence of their unbelief and indwelling sin ; 
nothing being more pleasing to the carnal mind than 
this syren song : — " It is absolutely impossible that the 



312 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



thoughts of your hearts should be cleansed in this life. 
God himself does not expect that you should be purified 
from all iniquity on this side the grave. It is proper 
that sin should dwell in your hearts by unbelief, to 
endear Christ to you, and so to work together for your 
good" The preachers of mere morality insinuate that 
God does not forgive sins before death. This danger- 
ous, uncomfortable doctrine, damps the faith of penitents, 
who think it absurd to expect before death what they 
are taught they can only receive at death. And as it 
is with the pardon of sins, so it is also with " cleansing 
from all unrighteousness." The preachers of Christian 
imperfection tell their hearers that nobody can be 
cleansed from heart sin before death. This new doc- 
trine makes them secretly trust in a death purgatory, 
and hinders them from pleading in faith the promises 
of full sa notification before death stares them in the 
face ; while others, like spared Agag, madly venture 
upon the spear of the king of terrors with their hearts 
full of indwelling sin. The dead tell no tales now; 
but it will be well if, in the day of resurrection, those 
who plead for the necessary indwelling of sin during 
the term of life do not meet in the great day with some 
deluded souls, who will give them no thanks for betray- 
ing them, to their last moments, into the hands of in- 
dwelling sin, by insinuating that there can be no deli- 
verance from our evil tempers before we are ready to 
exchange a death-bed for a coffin. 

XIII. It greatly discourages willing Israelites, and 
weakens the hands of the faithful spies who want to 
lead feeble believers on, and to take by force the king- 
dom which consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in 
the Holy Ghost ; nothing being more proper to damp 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 313 

their ardour than such a speech as this : — " You may- 
strive against your corruptions and evil tempers as long 
as you please : but you shall never get rid of them ; 
the Jericho within is impregnable : it is fenced up to 
heaven, and garrisoned by the tall, invincible, immortal 
sons of Anak : so strong are these adversaries, that the 
twelve apostles, with the help of Christ and the Holy 
Ghost, could never turn one of them out of his post. 
Nay, they so buffeted and overpowered St. Paul, the 
most zealous of the apostles, that they fairly took him 
prisoner, ' sold him under sin,' and made him groan to 
the last, 1 O wretched, carnal man that I am, who shall 
deliver me from the law of my inbred corruptions, 
which brings me into captivity to the law of sin? I 
thank God through death. So then with the flesh,' 
you must, as well as St. Paul, 1 serve the law of sin' till 
you die. Nor need you fret at these tidings ; for they 
are the pure gospel of Christ, the genuine doctrines of 
free grace and Christian liberty. In Christ you are free, 
but in yourselves you must continue to serve the law 
of sin : and indeed why should you not do it, since the 
sins of a Christian are for his good ; and even the 
dung of a sheep of Christ is of some use, nay, of the 
most excellent use, if we believe Mr. Hill; for the most 
grievous falls — falls into repeated acts of adultery and 
deliberate murder — serve to make us know our place, 
to drive us nearer to Christ, and to make us sing louder 
the praises of restoring grace." Besides, that gentleman 
represents those who preach deliverance from indwelling 
sin before we go into a death purgatory as " men of a 
Pharisaic cast ; blind men, who never saw their own 
hearts; proud men, who oppose the righteousness of 
God ; vain men, who aspire at robbing Christ of the 

14 



314 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



glory of being alone without sin : in short, men who 
hold doctrines which are shocking, not to say blas- 
phemous." 

How would this speech damp our desires after salva- 
tion from indwelling sin ! How would it make us hug 
the cursed chains of our inbred corruptions, if the cloven 
foot of the imperfect, unchaste Diana, which it holds out 
to public view without gospel sandals, were not sufficient 
to shock us back from this impure gospel to the pure 
gospel of Jesus Christ ! And yet (if I am not mistaken) 
this dangerous speech only unfolds the scope of Mr. 
Hill's u Creed for Perfectionists." 

XIV. To conclude. The modish doctrine of Chris- 
tian imperfection and death purgatory is so contrived, 
that carnal men will always prefer the purgatory of the 
Calvinists to that of the Papists. For the Papists pre- 
scribe I know not how many cups of divine wrath and 
dire vengeance, which are to be drunk by the souls 
of the believers who die half purged, or three-parts 
cleansed. These Aori/"-damned, or a garter-damned 
creatures, must go through a severe discipline, and fiery 
salvation, in the very suburbs of hell, before they can be 
perfectly purified. But our opponents have found out a 
way to deliver half-hearted believers out of all fear in 
this respect. Such believers need not " utterly abolish 
the body of sin" in this world. The inbred man of sin 
not only may, but he shall, live as long as we do. You 
will possibly ask, "What is to become of this sinful 
guest? Shall he take us to hell, or shall we take him 
to heaven? If he cannot die in this world, will Christ 
destroy him J n the next?" No: here Christ is almost 
left out of the question, by those who pretend to be de- 
termined to " know nothing but Christ and him cruci- 



BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 



315 



fied." Our indwelling adversary is not destroyed by 
the brightness of the Redeemer's spiritual appearing, 
but by the gloom of the appearance of death. Thus 
they have found another Jesus ; another Saviour from 
sin. The king of terrors comes to the assistance of 
Jesus' sanctifying grace, and instantaneously delivers 
the carnal believer from indwelling pride, unbelief, co- 
vetous ness, peevishness, uncharitableness, love of the 
world, and inordinate affection. Thus the clammy 
sweats, brought on by the greedy monster, kill, it seems, 
the tree of sin, of which the blood of Christ could only 
kill the buds ! The dying sinner's breath does the capi- 
tal work of the Spirit of holiness ! And by the most 
astonishing of all miracles, the faint, infectious, last gasp 
of a sinful believer blows away, in the twinkling of an 
eye, the great mountain of inward corruption, which all 
the means of grace, all the faith, prayers, and sacra- 
ments of twenty, perhaps of forty years, with all the 
love in the heart of our Zerubbabel, all the blood in his 
veins, all the power in his hands, and all the faithful- 
ness in his breast, were never able to remove ! If this 
doctrine be true, how greatly was St. Paul mistaken 
when he said, " The sting of death is sin, &c. Thanks 
be to God, who giveth us the victory through Christ our 
Jjord !" Should he not have said, Death is the care of 
sin, instead of saying, " Sin is the sting of death ?" 
And should not his praises flow thus : " Thanks be to 
God, who giveth us the victory through death, our 
great and only deliverer from our greatest and fiercest 
enemy, indwelling sin ?" 



THE END. 



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